I always thought that Luthor was just a jerk. Add the greatest brain on Earth and you have a super-jerk --and big problems for Superman. Maggin's characterization of the curly-haired, high-school aged Luthor as a practical joker with few moral boundaries and the adult Luthor as a monomaniacal genius/would-be conqueror were sufficient for me once I started to accept that bad-guys in comics needed to be more than one-dimensional, repeat-offenders. Although Marvel comics' Shakespearian/tragic villains and anti-heroes had softened me up, I guess.
In many ways, without the criminal intent, Luthor is the human heart and hero of the chronicles, as Waid and co suggested in Kingdom Come.
I think the really key element of the upgraded Luthor of that issue wasn't so much his Lexor armour -- though that did make him a more credible foe of Superman and George Perez's design wasn't hard on the eyes by a longshot -- but the change in motivation.
Many fans had troubles buying into Lex losing his hair as a good enough reason for a lifelong feud with Superman and all he stood for. Blaming Superman for the loss of the one world that idolized him, the normal life he could have led there, and his wife and son were far more credible for such everlasting hatred.
As Maggin explored the hair loss hatred and for anyone who's been ultra-self-conscious and vulnerable as a teenager, Siegel's motivation does indeed work.
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