They make very little mention of his popularity. It's weird, you are right, they kind of shit the bed with his character. Because...okay, so in the book and the '90s miniseries, when Nadine said, "You ain't no nice guy, Larry," it had meaning because the character is famous and shallow and grows as time goes on.
But when it's said here, if you haven't read the book, it's kind of meaningless because they didn't build the character.
I'm still enjoying it though. A lot. Because I can fill all this stuff in having read it so many times. I'm super curious on how people who've never read the book feel. But, in a way, I don't think this is made for them. It really feels like it was made for the fans because they are doing so little development on key characters. I'm not going to bullshit. I don't think I'd be exaggerating if the total time spent on Nick was maybe 10 minutes. It really feels like that. And he's a major player.
MAJOR book spoiler regarding Nick: