@AraraDeTerno
I think it was showcasing more of his pride than his lack of tact as a person. A Yokozuna in Japan is to be respected, especially in those old days, so they usually carry a certain pride in their title. It wasn't supposed to be focused on him being "good", it was more focused on his reasoning. The same reasoning can be stated as why, in the old days, a kid would go to the army and become a soldier for war, it was paved in the necessity of good intentions. In his intentions, he wished to get money for his village, not protect the world. He had/has a soft spot for his village, you don't see him actively helping those he doesn't know (unless those people at the cliffs were from another village entirely). He was using his strength to protect his village and that made him good, or so I think that's what the author was trying to showcase. Often, that's how many heroes start, they wish to protect what they know most of all. He is "selfish" and "full of desire", but he did what he needed to, to improve the conditions of his village and that was considered a "good deed". Our relation of good, may not meet the standards of the authors relation. All I know is that, he wasn't raping those women, and that in itself is good enough to showcase he wasn't under evil objectives, he was just a prideful "hero".
We only got a short glimpse of what he did within his 20 year stint of Sumo. The objective was to tell the story from his comrades perspective, more than himself, and they see him as a "hero" because of their standards. Notice how it often stated "he" did something rather than "I".