While how he raised her is wrong, we gotta understand his point of view... he loves his daughter and after his wife passed away he was unprepared. However, he probably knew he wanted to make her child happy and being the miserable person he is by losing the love his life, he wanted to avoid making her miserable. Instead, he spoiled her at a distant. Giving her everything she wanted, all the freedom she wanted—aka what every child thinks they want in life. However without guidance, children are bound to be led astray in numerous of ways and ruin their lives. In our FL's case, the old host became mean, selfish, and evil because she grew up getting everything she wanted without love, the one thing she couldn't seem to get due to father thinking she was best left along. However, that brought her and her family ruin.
Quite sad and tragic of a father. While wrong and certainly foolish, I cannot hate him like villaines' fathers we often see. This one truly seems to love his daughter.