It just so happens that there is a small Nero bust next to me right now, and I've written several papers on him so I must respond! Yes he did have "fans", and in the case of Roman Emperors the aristocrats write the history, and well they certainly didn't like Nero. What we can take away from the histories, especially Suetonius is that Nero was liked to an extent in his time, especially by the lower classes who he showered with games and festivals. He was also the biggest man-baby tyrant Rome saw. The ending line of Suetonius' Nero is really telling to me,

"He met his death in the thirty-second year of his age, on the anniversary of the murder of Octavia, and such was the public rejoicing that the people put on liberty-caps and ran about all over the city. Yet there were some who for a long time decorated his tomb with spring and summer flowers, and now produced his statues on the rostra in the fringed toga, and now his edicts, as if he were still alive and would shortly return and deal destruction to his enemies. Nay more, Vologaesus, king of the Parthians, when he sent envoys to the senate to renew his alliance, earnestly begged this too, that honour be paid to the memory of Nero. In fact, twenty years later, when I was a young man, a person of obscure origin appeared, who gave out that he was Nero, and the name was still in such favour with the Parthians that they supported him vigorously and surrendered him with great reluctance."

Suetonius here is saying that he didn't live through Nero's regime or not while he was of a meaningful age, and therefore his options of him are based upon other's opinions. But yet he still sees plenty of people who really liked Nero.