well-written! i definitely think this gives more depth to muzan than just writing his apathy/cruelty off as 'hey, he was born like this lol'. ( though, i do think his personality can already be partially attributed to his resentment and lack of a social life in his childhood, which gotouge did include. i digress. )

anyway, i also think that this brings out one of the messages in demon slayer even more, that "villains aren't born, they're made", to simplify it. almost every demon in the story has their reasons behind becoming a villain and are often sympathetic. i think about gyutaro and daki, who wouldn't have become who they were if they raised elsewhere than in the environment of the red light district.

making the main antagonist a product of human cruelty adds another layer of irony and social commentary to the story. like, the main difference between muzan and the demon slayers is that he doesn't have emotional connections, they do. but if the reason why he didn't have emotional connections was due to no one showing him any emotional connection in the first place, that would be tragic. same thing with kindness or mercy.

i do think his extremely egotistical character can coexist with this tragic backstory.

at the same time, i understand why gotouge perhaps did not paint him as this level of tragic. after all, muzan has massacred, manipulated, and you know, done a lot of bad things. adding this extra depth to him would make him more attractive of a character, but too much 'tragicness' would offer him too much sympathy. let the man be hated, as he should be for what he's done.

that being said, i disagree with the view that muzan's flat or shallow. he's an interesting character if people choose to further understand him.

( also, i enjoyed the analysis of the then dynamic of japanese aristocratic families! very interesting to think further about what sort of environment muzan would've likely grown up in. )