Not only was the whole thing completely out of left field for me, Pete didn't earn any of his advancements.

It was all Otto in Pete's body. If Pete had started out as Curt Connors assistant worked his way up yo right hand man and ended up running his lab when Curt inevitably went Full Raptor, that would have been one thing.

If he and Hobie Brown had started a lab together with venture capital from Harry Osborne, I could have bought that too.

They might as well of had Pete win the start up money for his lab with a scratch off Lottery Ticket. At least that would have let the main character do something.