Warning, there might be a few spoilers so just be warned.
Having looked at the lore behind the the man that went by many names; Wu Ming, Germaine, Eli, Drifter. Having been resurrected in the dark age, his life was hard, going days without eating just to die of starvation and being brought back by his ghost and still being hungry. (The Man with no Name)
He says he hates ghosts because they just bring you back just to save their own skin(shell?) and that Guardians shouldn’t trust them for it based on his experiences in the dark age, a few desperate enough for just some blue engrams(Drifter tapes)
Everything he has done is to prepare for something, lying and cheating to get what he wants, information or otherwise.
other than shaxx the drifter is the only char I regularly see with a personality. since cayde is gone and shaxx just screams too much he was the next option
Also the only friendly character with motives other than being a puppet of the Vanguard which would mean listening to the orders of the magic space orb. Now that I think about it he may be the only character with motives at all when you take the Traveler out of the equation… this is me talking in game characters because the characters in the lore are at least most of the time something more than a cardboard box with a face drawn on it.
He is also the only one with realistic motives really. His motivation is to get to tomorrow without dying and I can respect that. He doesn’t need a big complicated master plan to fulfill an extravagant motive. He’s just trying to get by in this world, and if that takes lies and manipulation, so be it. From what I am gathering, he is the most realistic and grounded character in the universe. One that has free will of choices -(Which I’d like to see a Destiny where you can choose more things in the future). And isn’t a cardboard cut out with a message box taped on.