If you want me to care about the protagonist of your fiction, you need to make him a heroic protagonist. He does not have to be perfect, and he can be flawed. But just as it is easy to make a villain an irredeemable monster twirling his Snidely Whiplash mustache while stepping on a box of kittens, it is easy to make your hero into a square jawed, virtuous and pure all-American hero who always does the right thing all the time. That is why it often goes too far into the other direction - but you do need to have a good protagonist.
We need heroic characters
We need heroic characters
We need heroic characters
If you want me to care about the protagonist of your fiction, you need to make him a heroic protagonist. He does not have to be perfect, and he can be flawed. But just as it is easy to make a villain an irredeemable monster twirling his Snidely Whiplash mustache while stepping on a box of kittens, it is easy to make your hero into a square jawed, virtuous and pure all-American hero who always does the right thing all the time. That is why it often goes too far into the other direction - but you do need to have a good protagonist.