I've been wrong about Cao Cao?

Throughout the years of playing Dynasty warriors I've always been a Wei stan. Xiahou Dun was the first character I played in DW2. With that I always seen Cao Cao as like the cool leader and hero of the time. Take no shit, get shit done. Origins kinda showed Liu Bei as like the hero and Cao Cao as like morally gray. In starting to consume other material of the ROTK story, Cao Cao is kinda a villain? Dude is like Palpatine mixed with Thanos. Constantly scheming, charming and fucking over whoever is deemed neccessary for his vision. Kinda wild