Neo-Nazis: did Breaking Bad almost jump the shark?

Having just watched the entire series for the first time, I now understand the raves I've heard about BB since 2008. Nevertheless, one of the quibbles I had with it was the emergence of The Brotherhood in season 5. Not a single one of "Uncle Jack"'s goons had the slightest bit of individuality and the writers refuse to do anything with them. They're just cartoonish stock villains who seem to exist so that we can take sadistic glee when Walt takes them out. Unstable and stupid, it's hard to believe that this gang of thugs would be able to hold on to their $70 million for very long. They probably would never take the trouble to launder it. Their wild cruelty and boorishness reminded me of the unstable Tuco. Indeed one of the things I had feared about BB was that it woukd be filled with such characters acting as a foil for the protagonist. Luckily, nothing could have prepared me for that superb dark drug lord Gus Fring, one of the best gangster creations I've ever seen and kudos to Giancarlo Esposito for his extraordinary work. When Gus commits an action, he's thinking in terms of long-term strategy. Even Walt expresses admiration for the deft way Gus rose to corner the Southwest market by cutting off the Mexican cartel (even though such a strategy left his brother-in-law almost dead). My suspicion was that season 5 would show Walt ascend his own drug empire and become the new Gus Fring--but that's not exactly how Vince Gillegan and his writers wanted it to end. The irritating neo-Nazis are not so intrusive that they mar the final episodes, but they just seemed like a manipulative ploy: we want to see them get it after watching them kill Hank against Walt's wishes (I would have preferred Hank die at Walt's hands because it would make more sense). We also see them torture and enslave Jesse, and murder his girlfriend (and by implication, Brock) and steal almost all of Walt's earnings: of course who doesn't want to see them massacred? But that's not exactly what this show has been about. Walt's killing of Krazy 8 in season 1 was extraordinarily powerful: we see the tortured reactions Walt has to it even though Walt was really in a position in which he had no choice. By the time we get to the finale "Felina", Walt is more like an action hero taking down names and kicking ass. It's pleasurable to see Walt take down these scumbags including the hyperneurotic snake-in-the-grass Lydia, but it also means BB is no longer dealing with the moral complexities involved with the life its cental character has chosen to pursue.