The version of the movie they ended up with also has conflicting messages about Magnifico -- one of the videos I watched included a bunch of clips from behind-the-scenes interviews, and different creators have exact-opposite descriptions of what his deal was supposed to be!

So some of them say "this was supposed to be a throwback to the classic mustache-twirling Disney villain, because we haven't done one of those for a while, and fans love them." But then, yeah, others say "he was supposed to start as a good guy and go through a nuanced exploration of how the descends into villainy, because mustache-twirling villains are so outdated."