I agree that he wasn't a defensive/holding midfielder, but he did contribute defensively by harrying and disrupting opposition midfields, and offensively by getting forward and causing havoc/scoring goals.
I don't get how being painted as something he wasn't, or not making a lot of passes, makes him a bad player? The best Phoenix teams he was part of relied more on the likes of Manny Muscat to sit at the base of midfield, and on Lia, Ward, Smith and Sanchez to spread the play.
He was good (at A-League level) at what he did, sitting in front of the defence or distributing the ball simply wasn't his role.