I hate books that have to perfect charas. It's stressing, because I'm such a un perfect type. So I always make sure that my characters has "flaws". Usually they are a bit clumsy and hate math, and are bad at it. And even if one character might seem perfect outside, she or he is completely opposite truly. And they have bad hair day and all that.
I think it's not so much a problem with the skills/virtues outweighing the flaws... it's just, to be engrossed as I reader, I need to find some affinity with the character and care about the events. When the character's conflicts are too easily dealt with because of their superpowered self, I won't worry-- wouldn't care-- wouldn't read on. (If the descriptive prose is bland and the plot not very neat, that is.) When every other character is patting this one character on the back, and the narrator goes on too long about how good s/he is, then even if the character itself isn't vain or self-aggrandizing I do feel just as frustrated as listening to someone who is. So, no affinity. Going by the theory that main characters are set up as a proxy for the reader, though, this kind of wish-fulfillment should be appealing to some people... and true, just playing up their flaws and weaknesses don't necessarily work either. With some characters that have a flaw purposely put in, I'm turned off by the flaw. (Or maybe how they deal with it, or refuse to deal with it.) So this might be more a matter of personal resonance, but I will usually feel more for those characters who can and do suffer.
I think that it would be cool to have a flawless character. Because maybe the aren't so flawless. Maybe perfect is a flaw in itself. So being flawless is a flaw.
If I were to make use of a flawless character, I would probably make him (or her) an observer who ethically refuses to get involved, and he would probably be the POV character. But even a flawless character could have an internal struggle. For instance, that very refusal to interfere could be tested in an ethically grey scenario. Even if the character were essentially perfect, the world is not, and imperfect information means that a decision could be neither right nor wrong.
I'm sort of new here, haha, but anyway: there is nothing wrong with a flawless character as long as you do it right. No one is perfect, but from certain perspectives, people can APPEAR perfect.
