Michael means, “one who is like God.” The term Arch-angel means, “the chief messenger.”
If one who is like God and is the chief messenger is not Christ, than who is it?
I find that the main difficulty with those that reject this is that they view the term angel as only a species and not a function. Scripture is clear that humans have been called angels, because they carried a message.
Humans are not angels. Nor are they called angels anywhere in the Bible.
I take the Bible at its Word, and the angel of the Lord is the angel of the Lord, not Jesus. We CAN over-think these things, you know.