In defense of one-dimensional characters

Screenshot from The Gamer American media seems to love complex heroes, especially morally gray ones. The characters who will break the rules, but do so in pursuit of a goal that the viewer/reader supports, make it ok. Butcher in The Boys is one example. He's a bad husband, absent father, liar and killer, but he's trying to take down Homelander who is objectively worse, so the viewer can overlook his flaws. Our heroes must have a dark side and our villains have to be sympathetic. I think it's exhausting. I'm not arguing that every character needs to be overly simplistic, or that there can't be personal growth, but it seems that popular stories focus nearly exclusively on moral ambiguity. Butcher suffered great personal loss so the expectation is that he'll do bad things. That inner struggle, which he may overcome (the series isn't done yet), has periods of ebbs and flows. There seems to be a belief that characters who act in morally ambiguous ways are more realistic, but I don't think…