In Reply To #2
Actually, I have read Dracula a few times, and I'm pretty sure there was nothing in Bram Stoker's original book about a dead wife, and cursing God etc. I think that was added to the Francis Ford Coppola movie so they could make Dracula a sympathetic character. In the book, you never really find out why/how he became a vampire, and there was no romantic subplot between him and Mina.
But to answer the OP, I think in the early days of the CV series Dracula was a badass villain. I think Dracula has become pathetic over the years as the story has become more convoluted, just because of repetition due to the number of games that are being tied in, and also the muddying of the story. Dracula's existence has been changed to basically "Get resurrected, get defeated immediately by a Belmont, Alucard or some other vampire hunters, go back to the void until the next time he is resurrected and quickly defeated." I think if they went back to Dracula as an evil villain pulling the strings, instead of the hapless villain who just seems to wake up for his obligatory fight with the latest Belmont, he would seem a lot less pathetic.