Considering the box office his last few movies have done, I'd say he falls under your first statement.

Verhoven has said that he refused to read the book. This movie was done by people that didn't like Heinlein and were out to do a number on Heinlein, and his politics. This is not my opinion, I attended the panel at the 96 World Con where they freely admitted that they were out to subvert the books viewpoint. In fact they were very proud of themselves that they turned down the writers that really hated Heinlein. They labored valiantly to tell you absolutely nothing about the film.

I swear they actually said this: Were are going to do the book, but change it. We are going to do his politics exactly, but subvert them! It was so bad that the authors in later panels were making fun of them.

This site explains many of the differences, and the changes they made to make Heinlein, and his politics look bad: http://www.kentaurus.com/troopers.htm

David.