And while the gap is very wide, if you sit anywhere within the gap, which you'd think should be pretty easy, everyone thinks you should be lit of fire.

Reality. Nazis were bad but they weren't comic book bad. They are typical statists. Morally delinquent while thinking they are on the moral high road. So yeah, typical statists. They always think the ends justify the means just so they can avoid looking at the means in detail. Because that's boring and uncomfortable. Well real morality is boring and uncomfortable. This problem exists with minimum wage and it exists with forced expulsion where you then don't let people complete their expulsion.

I think the a compelling factor for why people consider the nazis comic book evil is because if they are then comparison of them to one's self is never tempted. "They are comic book evil and I'm not so I should never consider similarities." That and because it is ok for people's modern enemies to be also painted as comic book evil so comparisons to nazis start to get you there. That's a convenient win for a lazy mind.