Also, there’s an interesting gap around what folks will accept in terms of being a GM vs Player.

Drug Lord NPCs? Dime a dozen. Drug Lord PCs? That’s often a nope.

I think credibility and distance are part of it. But think there’s a moral dimension there as well, with an assumption of PCs as self-identification avatars. 

GMs author horrible shit as a matter of course. Put it on a PC and it breaks people’s brain paradigm.