The "reality checks" people give Homelander aren't badass.

So people often bring up the "you're my greatest failure" or the "you are simply a bad product" lines. They act like these lines a super cool and these guys are humbling Homelander.

Bro, the reason Homelander is the way he is, is because of Vogelbaum and Edgar, when Edgar call him a man child, he's a man child because of him.

If an abusive parent routinely beat the shit out their kid, then when the kid is an adult makes fun of him for being fucked up, nobody would call it badass, or a reality-check.