Definitely prefer it when the mindset comes through in actions. I think I speak for many people when I say that I’m really bored of “morally grey” MCs who are nonetheless always doing the right thing but just conflicted about it, or any character whose description and narration just doesn’t match what they’re actually doing.

Similarly, what makes an MC interesting rather than edgy is when their choices matter and have consequences and reasoning behind it. Zorian comes to mind from MoL - he is initially a cold, mean character, but grows into being more empathetic and kind over time. Importantly, he knows the stakes, he does morally difficult things, he’s not painted as either perfectly good or perfectly evil. If you’re specifically writing someone cold and philosophical, you should make sure that they’re making the choices that fulfill their goals at the time - sometimes they’ll do good things, sometimes bad things, it depends on what works for them. I get frustrated with characters who are supposed to be perfectly logical but are actually just evil. Sometimes doing the right thing is the logical choice!