In terms of how they played and approached the game, I think Kobe and MJ were extremely similar. The major distinction is that Jordan was better than Kobe, which led to Jordan being a more efficient offensive player, which makes their playing styles feel somewhat different. Jordan and Kobe both had the approach of going out there and taking a million shots, but Jordan shot at an above 50% rate, so even if it wasn't the most fluid, team-basketball that coaches idolize, it was often the best offensive strategy. Kobe had the same approach, but wasn't nearly as efficient, and the result was that he was seen as a egomaniacal ballhog. Jordan was the same way, but Jordan was so good that him taking 12 contested mid-range jumpers was actually very efficient offense.
Kobe grew up and broke into the NBA in an era where Jordan was a god. He was worshipped by everyone, and a whole generation of players that came after Jordan wanted to Be Like Mike. Kobe, T-Mac, Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, even Paul Pierce, in their own way, they patterned their game after Jordan. That wasn't probably the best use of all of their talents, but that was what the game demanded of them. It was a particularly ugly time for NBA basketball, but I think some of the negative parts of Kobe's game have to be contextualized in the era he played in. None of the top scorers were particularly efficient--offenses in the NBA overall were pretty miserable, and the result is all of those guys I listed above are some of the least efficient big-time scorers in NBA history.
If Kobe had been born 20 years later, I think his approach to the game would have been very different, and he would have been a more efficient scorer. But anyone that was a hyperathletic #2 guard coming in at the end of the Jordan years was going to end up playing like Jordan, even if they lacked Jordan's one-of-a-kind talent.
In terms of his legacy today, it's mostly just a case of a lot of players now having grown up watching Kobe, who was the most heavily marketed player of his generation. And Kobe won, a lot. Now, we can all poke holes in why and how he won, but for NBA players they don't need a ton of justification to love the player they grew up watching. Kobe played super hard, worked hard on his game, and won. Even if the mythos is just that, a myth that isn't really true, you are not going to be able to convince people that loved him growing up (and maybe had some personal interaction with him when they were young professionals) that a lot of Kobe's image doesn't hold up to closer scrutiny.