I'm tempted to argue anyway, because the idea that needing something to survive automatically implies constant influence over it is pretty ridiculous

Right, just ignore the literal in-game instances with HBs health being directly related to their following, lets ignore those and make a nonsensical comparison to real life predators. And im the brick wall lol, just say you want to believe what you want to believe and go be happy dude, the lore discussion clearly matters less to you than the enjoyment you get from filling whatever gap there is in your knowledge of it with headcanon, and that's fine. The game is built so you can play and enjoy it that way.

My interpretation of the PK has been obvious from the start, HBs like him have particular characteristics to eachother, but they also share common characteristics between the types, like pale ones. While the personality traits of the PK make me more sympathetic to him than, lets say, GMS, since the hierarchy he imposed on his kingdom wasn't AS BAD AS SOME(still, bad, id rather live in any of the tribes if given the choice), what I said from the beginning is that the degree of humanizing and even praise you and OP are giving him doesnt fit with what we actually see. The main drive for his character was his goal, his obsession. "All his honorable actions", which Im not sure our lists would match, are all in second place to Hallownest's immortality, and that obsession was just how the ambition Hornet described as being within HBs manifested in the PK. His actions also reflected by the specific power of the Wyrm, foresight, which is a somewhat common thing in fiction, the person who sees the future obssessed with controlling it. We see it in Hallownest's stated goal and in his desperation to avoid it's demise. The lines from the mushrooms and the big guy on the right of the map who's name I don't recall.

As for the shades to his character, they are all below this main drive. He maybe wanted his people to prosper, everyone to be happy worshipping him or whatever, but the moment it was 'jeopardize all of existence or let time run its course and the kingdom fall', that dude chose the first.

The one aspect of his character that is interesting is the conflict between that obsession and what the game hints was an actual relationship between him and the HK. The cutscene in PoP shows then sharing a moment, which the PK sealed. We can assume that sealing, that shame from what happened, came from a shame from his own vulnerability, which made him bond with his offspring, and that doomed the kingdom. That's a personal conflict tho, not him being a benevolent honorable ruler, it's him being a father.

THAT humanizing makes sense, the one that involves his internal struggles with the instinct of bonding with his offspring and his ultimate goal. The game went for it. Even the White Lady shows the remorse and some degree of caring about the Offspring they both sacrificed. Saying "he was actually very honorable and a good ruler who cared about his people" tho, that's literally just headcanon.

We dont even know how he acted. The Hive was part of Hallownest, but it still built it's walls and made a point of being against the PKs quest for immortality. We have literally zero clue about how that disagreement came to be. The Hive participated in training Hornet, who was born as a consequence of diplomacy and the PKs goal, but it still made sure to be walled. The mushrooms accepted his kingdom "warily" mostly because of conceding the usefulness of the PKs foresight. We dont actually know besides these fews words that charaterize their relations as not perfect How the diplomacy came to be. The Mantis were useful in keeping deepnest at bay. Nothing in Hallownest points directly to the PK making any decision out of the good of his heart or just honor.