Lol... I didn't see it that way at all. Out of 41.5k fan votes on ranker he was ranked 16th best South Park Character of all time.Yea I've seen it, one of the few episodes I won't rewatch five times.
I took that scene as more Matt n Trey doing a little self deprecation, as in, "yea, we know Towlie sucks and was a bad idea". Haven't seen him since, which is telling to me
The Best South Park Characters of All Time
Towelie was awesome!