You’re assuming that because he was portrayed s a killer and a cannibal, that he was cast in a negative light. That wasn’t really the case. He actually came off as rather decent and honorable. I know it sounds surreal, But you have to remember, this is network TV. It’s another zone of “reality”. It wasn’t particularly judgmental and he suffered no consequences for neither killing nor cannibalizing.
Although I think you could agree that was a safe assumption to make.