Most of what you say is correct.
Though I still do stick by that Trump himself isn't important. The thing is though other people can't be Trump cause Trump is still around. If Trump stopped being in the spotlight he can be replaced very easily. Trump is very much a blank slate that people can project onto whatever they want to see.
Vance doesn't have the casual attitude that allow many people to project onto Trump. With DeSantis he actually tried to do specific things which doomed him. Any time Trump tried to do something specific like with abortion he actually got a lot of backlash too.
"Trump" as an individual doesn't matter. What matters is the character other people see. Since he is many people's avatar if he says he hates someone they hate them too.