Richard is the most compelling "mundane" character I've seen on a television show since Breaking Bad
I'm not sure if people fully appreciate how amazing that character is. I'm only up to season 2 episode 8 (just finished), but he's incredibly well-written. With Mike, his role was the "yakker" which was perfectly fine in that "ecosystem" as he called it. With Mike, he belonged and all was good.
Mike dies, Carmen takes over, and everything is threatened. Richard feels worse than most of us would in this situation and they demonstrate it wonderfully. He doesn't have skills compared to others because his skill is entirely interpersonal. He's built to observe, mentally note and record, and interact accordingly. This means that he's noting everyone's skills to a level that most of us wouldn't. It also means he has a high need to belong and be part of the social fabric because it plays into what he's born to be so good at.
This leads to a lot of fascinating moments that I've repeatedly thought about as I've savored these episodes post-watch. Not exhaustive, but the ones that stand out to me (in no particular order):
His frequent citing of the "delicate ecosystem". He's not being a stubborn jerk and this isn't simply a self-serving bias. Yes, he has a need to belong and Carmen threatens that. However, he's also highly attuned to the others (e.g., Tina, Ebra) and knows that they don't want change.
Related to 1, he stops fighting on behalf of the "ecosystem" when Tina tells him that the changes are good. That is when he starts trying hard to work into the new social network. But "yakker" is not something that is needed in its current form. However, he is observing everyone else adjusting and thriving to the new status quo and he keeps trying every non-square shape to fit into the square hole and it doesn't work.
He absolutely felt it was a punishment no matter where Carmen sent him in Forks or what he'd be doing because he needs to belong to the group and this went into the opposite direction (temporarily). Similarly, until his lightbulb moment, no amount of praise, purpose-fulfillment, responsibilities, and so on would make him feel differently about it being a punishment.
He now realizes "yakker" did not fit into the new ecosystem, but what made him an effective "yakker" does produce the square peg that no one else can manage. No one else is a people person let alone observing others enough to know about their children, dogs, skillset, and so on.
That realization in 4 was so perfectly shown with the ledger at the Forks restaurant. Basically, he saw them frantically recording everything (e.g., history, eating preferences, dinner dialogue) that he's always done organically ("heard and resented"). It must have been wild for him to realize at that moment that what makes the high end restaurant that much more amazing is exactly what he brings to the proverbial table.
I love all of the characters, but that Richard is #1 for me.