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Well, RB, in the "on the one hand, on the other" category, give Napoleon credit for rationalizing European legal systems by instituting the Napoleonic Code, which is still used today in one form or another in most of the world.
I still think Bismarck is much more responsible for what national governments look like than Napoleon. Bureaucracy, centralization of decisionmaking, extension of the sphere of the state - all traceable to Otto. (Although you can trace a lot of the state-centric approach back to Catherine the Great. In theory there was divine right before that, but the sphere of the state was much smaller, certainly before Westphalia and even for a while after that.)
I agree with you that Napoleon certainly had his influences on later developments, but remember: he was a failure. As a model to be emulated by others that was the big flaw - what he created didn't work. His reign ended with Alexander marching down the Champs Elysee and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.
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