The old pardon power goes back to the formation of the country when kings granted pardons, and so they gave the power to the president. Hunter did some bad stuff to make himself rich over the years and he knew he was getting a pardon all along as did everyone in my opinion. But it was a massive get out of jail free card, ten years of bad deeds forgiven. No other citizen in the country could get that. It shows off the difference in treatment for the rich and the regular guys, two different systems of justice.
I personally thought the sentence he faced was ridiculously long for what he did, and the justice system here needs to be reformed entirely. It was still wrong to let him of the hook for his dirty deeds in Ukraine that made not only father and son a lot of money. But now as the Biden's move out of the White House the family has a clean and pardoned slate...
What can I say ! Not much has changed from the times of Kings and monarchies, we probably just are more politically correct and don't want to say the truth to enrage the masses.