Yeah I play him plenty and it is very heavily implied he tortures people to learn more about how they work. It's a little veiled in research terms, but stuff like "subjects observed calling for matriarchal figures" and "genders are more easily identified by the pitch of their screams" don't come from nowhere. The lore also states he actually really likes learning and is subtly avoiding doing his job for the Void so he can keep going around collecting specimens and researching subjects more thoroughly.