I'm not sure Matt needs to be portrayed in a better light, right or wrong for
what we know he was fired by Axl for supporting Slash, which is loyalty by definition
(not to the good guy if he wanted to stay in the band

) and as a drummer he
is praised for his qualities by musicians & the general public so I don't
see why he would feel the urge to glorify himself that much...
what I think is Duff said what he believed at that particular moment and when
you listen to interviews you have indeed the feeling that it took a little longer
for the guys to adapt to Frank's style