Re: tl;dr: Uninteresting? Kind of, but let's look at the bigger picture.
Yeah, Zero in Zero-era's a dick- but I'm still unclear how much of that is from Inafune, and how much of that is Inti. Inafune gets a lot of credit where he shouldn't, I've noticed. But I agree, he's very difficult to relate to as a protagonist in that series. At least in the X series, there are times you can feel a little sympathy for him.
X4 -was- a depressing game; that's sort of the place where it all went into ZOMG ANGST. I agree that the system of the later games, where you can swap in characters, is far preferable- more of a sense that the group is working together. Though X8 is still unplayably hard for me generally, I do like the first chapter, where the Trio swap in and out and have short conversations together during the changeout. It gives a sense that they are all working together as a unit and ready to cover each other. Far preferable to earlier games.