He was a good numbers guy, but there were always five or more players better than him throughout his tenure. Certainly not 2 MVP's good.
Sure, whether he deserved to win a couple of MVPs is a perfectly valid argument. The fact that there were probably single-digits worth of better players than him during the greatest era the NBA has ever seen is the definition of a great player, no?
I think Karl is one of the players that history looks back on more kindly than the present did.
He was seen as not a winner/unable to win at the time, and a lot of fans valued that more so than at present. If you asked 10 people to choose between Malone and Pippen, it would have been 5 and 5.