Rashi is brutal with Lavan regarding hugging and kissing Yakov avinu. He says he hugged him to search him for valuables, and even kissed him to search for pearls in his mouth. And he put up with him for a month because he took the sheep to pasture.

The implication might sound as if Lavan was bad because he had no "natural" love for his kin. However when we talk about frum people we say that one should love Hashem more than his kids, and that one should do mitzvos (like hachnasas orchim) because they are are orders and not because they feel good. So basically we like people who really don't particularly love others but want olam haba for themselves.

So maybe what Rashi is really saying is that Lavan was foolish because he accepted rewards from olam haba instead of olam haze.

I don't buy it though. I think in ancient times a lot more Jews actually loved others because it made them feel good. You didn't have to wave olam haba in front of them.

The others are the kind of people that develop addictions because they are burning with self-hatred. I was once guilty of this myself unfortunately.

I think it's interesting that Lavan deceived Yakov avinu by giving him something for free, namely Leah. It's also interesting that he seems to rebuke him for trying to pass over the older daughter, like he's saying "this is not proper." Really deception ran in the family, since Lavan, Leah and Rachel all participated in this one, and Lavan's sister, Rivka imenu, deceived her husband, and Yakov himself went along with it.

I wonder how Lavan felt about deceiving people in general after he saw how he came out trying to deceive Yakov all those years, where his efforts at deception ended up making Yakov wealthy.

I think maybe it's because having had Yakov around for seven years already he probably saw bracha throughout his household and didn't want him to pick up a wife and leave yet. And yet he wanted to maintain control the whole time. Indeed later it says that he could tell that his financial success was because of him. He probably grasped that early in the process.

Also interesting that the children had to be born by Lavan's household. Maybe it's a concept of ohr min hachoshech like mitzraim, or maybe it was better for Yakov because there was a support system there. Or just a kappara for Yakov avinu, time helps.