I create characters by working backwards from the plot.
You see, in reality, people:
- Are born with a genetic nature.
- Are impacted by their life experiences.
- Have a set of motivations and goals as a result of #1 and #2.
- Do things as a result of #3.
This is a process what moves forward in time, from the beginning of someone's life, to the moment in the time where you observe them doing something and ask "why".
But when writing a story, I am already at that moment, the endpoint of the process in time. So I work backwards to the beginning.
What do I need him to do in the story —> What does he want that makes him do that —> What early-life experiences did he have that made him want that?
(Genetic predispositions generally aren't as useful for fictional characters, unless they are three feet ten inches tall and smell like vanilla.)
It is, of course, absolutely okay, and often necessary, to want readers to feel a certain way about a character, at least at that certain point in time.
But kicking, or saving, the cat is a very crude tool for doing this, because it doesn't flow naturally from that character's motivations, or move the plot forward, unless that's what the story is actually about.
In which case, we don't call it "save the cat".
If your character's actions, flowing from his motivations, in the context of the plot, don't make readers feel what you want them to feel about the character, the thing to do is ask yourself why.
If the character's motivated actions aren't objectionable, they probably aren't a good villain, and will chafe in the role. Likewise for heroes.
And of course, it's perfectly okay to have a protagonist that isn't a perfect hero. Or an antagonist that isn't an irredeemable villain.
But then you have to expect that readers will react to them in a more nuanced, and a more varied, way.
Some readers will sympathize with a scrappy thief character who has turned to crime because he is down on his luck. Others will hate him because he steals. If you write that kind of story, you have to be okay with that.
The point is to tell the kind of story you want to tell, and have some idea how it will land with readers because of the way you told it.
Without gluing on irrelevant tangents in a crude attempt to sway them.
Good writing starts with the assumption that the reader isn't dumb.