I usually like Ricky Gervais but I would much rather have watched twenty minutes of him doing stand-up than to sit through (or in my case, TiVo through) an extremely boring awards show. He did as much as you can expect a host in that situation to do: He added some life and interest to an event that no one would have otherwise cared much about. I suspect the Hollywood Foreign Press folks who run that show are delighted with the attention he brought to it, and that any negative comments from officials there are just them trying to distance themselves from selective outrage. Or maybe they were just pissed about his jokes about how the award can be bought.
If he'd done any of that on the Oscars, a lot of folks would have punched Mr. Gervais right in his childish "you can't stop me from misbehaving" grin. That's because a lot of people care about the Oscars, whereas the Golden Globes really exist for only four reasons…
One is to have a TV special from which someone can make some money by broadcasting the proceedings.
Another is to give awards that can be used to promote product. "Winner of three Golden Globes" is apparently a valuable thing to say in advertising.
Another is just to give awards to people who like getting awards and don't care if, as in this case, they have no idea who votes them or what criteria is applied. It's like, "So what? It's an award!"
And lastly, it's apparently a great party. I suspect more stars who aren't nominees attend the Golden Globes than go to the Academy Awards, even though every single attendee has more respect for the latter. But the Golden Globes reportedly (I've never been) have great food and free free-flowing liquor and there's a veneer of the kind of glamour that everyone yearns to find in Hollywood but so rarely encounters.
I don't see that Ricky Gervais spoiled any of that except, arguably, the last. Actually, I do understand why some who were present to be insulted by him might have objected. He had weeks of time and a crew of writers to craft what he was going to say about them. If they wanted to return fire, they had about ten seconds to come up with something off the tops of their well-coiffed heads. It wasn't exactly a fair fight.
I suspect Gervais will not host the Golden Globes again, not because they won't want him back but because he won't do it. If he does, the presenters and nominees will all come armed with scripted Ricky Gervais insults and it won't be a bad awards show. It'll be a bad Friars Roast.