Genuine question. If I read an uplifting report about a captain who put his life on the line to rescue every single passenger, while some crew members abandoned ship first… Writing several stories based on the idea that captains don’t really enjoy being captains, just looking down at everyone else on the ship not being captain, seems unusual. (Although I suspect that most readers are more interested in catastrophic outcomes.)
Your question assumes that I only find one type of human story interesting and/or inspiring; I don’t think I said that.
In many cases, there are several aspects of a story that provide inspiration, but depending on what is going on in the world, a writer might choose to focus on one — especially for a short story.
If I read an uplifting report about a captain who put his life on the line to rescue every single passenger, while some crew members abandoned ship first… Writing several stories based on the idea that captains don’t really enjoy being captains, just looking down at everyone else on the ship not being captain, seems unusual.
I think that may be what’s called a false equivalence.
While it’s not true that captains don’t like to be captains, it’s true that selfish people tend to lack empathy.