>everyone loves Dukat for being an evil space fascist
Not quite. People loved Dukat because he was a realistic character. His morality was completely gray in such a way that he felt profoundly relate-able to any viewer. He endured a continuous struggle of the soul, having to choose between his loyalty to his nation, and what he thought to be morally right. In this way, Dukat become the show's tractor beam: sucking in the audience and keeping their attention throughout the episodes. That was up until the writers tried to ruin him.
It was the episode where Sisko and Dukat were stranded together, and Dukat suddenly becomes the 'evil tyrant' out of fucking nowhere. From then on, everything he did was because "evil space fascist". However, Behr and the other couldn't put a stop to what had already begun. Many viewers, myself included, were already so drawn to the character, that our loyalty lied with Dukat, no matter how the writers attempted to coerce us into deceiving him. Dukat was too strong of a personality, this came from the fact that the writers built him up so much in previous seasons, plus Marc Alaimo is a fantastic actor. So despite the writers' efforts they could not waiver support for Dukat, and his following is still strong to this day.