I'll agree that nobody wants to write (well, maybe they do, but they oughtn't to want to) a perfect character. But you have to be careful of how you're defining perfect and how you're defining flawed.
I've stumbled across a few people who seem to think if a heroine has anything even similar to good looks, it means she's perfect, and the author is under obligation to counter-act that good point by making her selfish, or some other flaw. If the main character is talented at something, then she (the poor young women are mostly picked on, but mostly by young women, so the gentlemen still retain their gallantry
) must certainly be perfect. If she is unusual she must be a Mary-Sue (but if everyone else were as unusual as she, she wouldn't be unusual anymore).
I'm not in any way saying that you have these ideas, but some people truly do.
The word 'flaw' is often misinterpreted, as well. I've stumbled across people who think a person must have a flaw for every virtue they have, which is most realistic. I know many people, in fact and fiction, who have only one or two flaws against their many virtues... but these few flaws spoil everything else to a certain extent. I've heard that if your main character is selfish enough to not want to help her (again... it's always the females who are picked on) family and friends with something but not so selfish as to watch her friend die so she won't have to, she isn't selfish enough.
I once read a book about a fellow who had quite a few flaws... he was obstinately stubborn, he was accustomed to use slang, etc., etc. But even these flaws weren't actual flaws. They were un-refined virtues. Near the end his stubbornness was refined into determination to stand for what is right, and his use of slang developed into a real grasp of humour. This character didn't have
any flaws, but only un-refined virtues. And yet almost every young lad I know who knows him adores him.
I'd be interested in hearing how others on this thread define 'perfect' and 'flawed.' How bad does a person have to be to be flawed? And when is it that they're pushing the limits and becoming perfect?
And here's something to think about...
If you have a good character, without many serious and wicked flaws, and perhaps only un-refined virtues, don't make everyone else around him really bad, to show up his goodness. Surround him by characters who are just as good as he is, and maybe even a character whose better.
And if you have a bad character that you really want to show up as mean and selfish, put at least one very good character alongside him who will show, just by being the opposite, how bad this character really is. It worked in
Gone with the Wind with Scarlett O'Hara and Melly.... or at least it worked for me.