Obama and Clinton had eight years and have made a gigantic mess.
Pence is a normal conservative. If you hold that secular liberalism (which is closer to socialism than “classic” liberalism which emphasized free markets and personal liberty) is a threat, opposing Clinton is a “no brainer”.
Johnson/Weld mighter be better, but if Pence turns Trump into a conservative that is good. So far Trump has been running “in character” from the character he did on his TV show, with a very center of the road platform (probably closer to the Democrats on most issues than to the traditional Republic conservative positions of the last 50 years).