I always liked Winchester better than Frank Burns. Burns was just such an idiotic twit that there was really nowhere to go with the character.
I like Winchester but Frank Burns/Hot Lips were the perfect foil for Hawkeye/Trapper John. Burns was the perfect "straight man," imo, his willingness to be the butt of the jokes made him a favorite of mine. The fact that the cast spoke very highly of Larry Linville's ability speaks volumes to me.
Not to mention, Frank Burns had the best line of the whole series, imo: "Individuality is fine, as long as we do it together." That line makes me laugh every time.
Winchester could (and did) push back on Hawkeye and BJ, and it made for a lot better comedy.
My two favorite Winchester episodes are:
1. The episode in which Hawkeye's father was going into surgery and Hawkeye lost communication and was worrying about his father. Winchester "being there" for Hawkeye was a great episode for me.
2. Winchester/Hawkeye teaming up to prove that people would believe any idle gossip. They spread gossip that "Marilyn Monroe" was coming to 4077. It was also the same episode that B.J. went bonkers over leaving a GI behind while being award a medal.
(Honorable mention: the episode in which he defended a patient with a stutter, because it turns out his sister has a stutter, and the episode with the injured pianist.)
The main difference for me between Winchester and Burns is that there was a genuine respect between Hawkeye/BJ and Winchester, as they appeared to be little to none between Hawkeye/Trapper John and Burns.
Loved the way the Margaret Houlihan character evolved through the series. She started out as two-dimensional as Frank, but was anything but that at the end.
She was "Hot Lips" with Burns, but once she dump him, she became "Margaret", in my eyes. And that is a good thing. Though I thoroughly disliked her "husband", very much.