It seemed pretty clear to me that Homelander enjoyed having Butcher as a pseudo nemesis even though, save for last season, the former clearly could kill the latter whenever he wanted to. I've always read it as though he enjoyed the sport of the conflict on an amusement level, at least until he ordered Deep and Noir to kill them.
I don't know maybe I've been influenced by videos which show that Homelander tends to look down on those who are afraid of him but actually respects those that aren't or at least have the balls to stand up to him and show a spine (to some degree, as in he doesn't immediately kill them: Butcher, Vogelbaum, Maeve, Edgar, the head scientist from that underground lab this season (forget the name), Sage, Hughie (last season).
But for someone who doesn't like superheroes, I mean that's part of the draw of this show. It's intentionally putting out the inverse effect superhero movies/shows are supposed to have. To each their own I guess.
