It's important to note that much of what we've been told about Drew's past comes from two (unreliable) sources: David's journal and Hunter. What I'm trying to shine a light on here is the reason Sterling is highly suspicious of Drew is because he thinks Drew is just like Hunter, but that fear is based mainly on Hunter's statements. In my opinion, Drew is very much a victim of Hunter, having been groomed since childhood to seduce women, all while actually believing Hunter was benevolent.
Replay the conversation from chapter 12 between Drew and Lucia in the shed (while Hunter is accusing Sterling), Drew seems to honestly think that Hunter has been a net positive for the families he's "taken care of", and that Hunter's methods are justified because of what Drew thinks Sterling has done to Hunter. Drew then equates Hunter's plan (as she understands it) with Sterling's actions, which I take to mean: fuck your family and earn money letting the internet watch. And Drew is not wrong, this is exactly what Sterling has done with Brenna, Eva* (*not family), Catherine, and soon with Ophelia (based on chapter 13 teasers). The point is, these women were willing participants with Sterling in essentially prostituting themselves, and we don't condemn him. But we seem to condemn Drew for similar actions without reviewing the facts.
In chapter 12, under the effects of "truth gas", Hunter confesses feeling guilty about the first household he seduced after leaving with Drew. A key detail is that Hunter says he did the seducing, he doesn't mention Drew. He describes it as almost accidental, but then admits that he took a predatory approach to subsequent households, and then pimped them out. That's when Drew came in, to help "manage" after Hunter left. But the way Hunter describes it (under truth gas), it sounds like the women were willing/eager participants because of how much money they were making. There's plenty of room to debate the ethics of prostitution, but again I have to point out: Sterling has been helping Brenna (and others) do something very similar (albeit on camera only, and not physically with strangers).
Speaking of seducing households, that's exactly what Sterling has done with Kumiko's family. Sure, Caspian encouraged it, but it's possible there were men in the households Hunter conquered who were also open to the idea. And if they weren't, I'm willing to bet Hunter didn't tell Drew the entire truth about how he overcame their resistance.
The main thing I think Drew actually is guilty of is adultery with David, although we know very little about how it happened because we've only learned about it from a few emails. I speculate that David was bisexual (or maybe even gay?), and that Ophelia might have even suspected this. At some point David and Ophelia may have started to drift apart, which I can sympathize with. This doesn't excuse Drew swooping in to cuck Ophelia, but David was an adult and situations like that are messy but not uncommon.
And speaking of adultery, Sterling has fucked two married women: Rachita (the nurse) and Kumiko. And this is merely speculative, but I'm sure he'll fuck more married women if they offer.
In summary, I'm not necessarily trying to say that "Drew is actually good" or that "Sterling is actually bad", but rather that when viewed objectively, there are many parallels between them, and most of what we think we know about Drew is unreliable at best.
