I think the og james wasn't supposed to be likeable at first

The idea was that your choices determined his path, redeeming him if you played one way or damning him if you played another. Same thing with Arthur Morgan. James buried everything, beat himself up, made excuses, forgot it all. But that wasn't the plan, and his suffering is what cleaned him up and helped him realize the truth.

Not to mention I liked og james too. That being said, james doesn't deserve a pass. What he did was horrible, and the punishment he faced was well earned. But there's a lot of nuance to him as a character. He's not just some outright villain or irredeemable monster, that completely misses what the game is trying to show. The problem is that people either treat him like a misunderstood angel who did nothing wrong or like he's some irredeemable monster. Neither is right. James is a deeply flawed, complex character who exists in that uncomfortable gray area. One can also interpretate that, he wasn't trying to be redeemed, but silent hill dragged it out of him anyway.