I think a lot of people want to paint Joel as evil or selfish because of his lack of concern for the rest of humanity, or as good or altruistic because of his desire to protect Ellie, but I personally don't like to talk about it in such black and white terms. Joel is very much a product of his experience and environment. He is essentially a broken, empty husk of a man after the 20 year time skip, who is barely hanging onto the desire to live. Joel has seen the height of civilization for him (living a peaceful life with his daughter Sarah), and knows that it will never come back.
Joel's personal struggle in The Last of Us is his willingness to accept another person into his heart. It takes a long time, but by the end of the story, Joel finally accepts Ellie, overcoming that barrier that he has held up seemingly since Sarah died. With that said, I still think he is broken, exhibiting a clear lack of faith in humanity, and in this regard, he has remained static as a character, which I think makes the ending more powerful, since it hints at a potential conflict of worldviews with Ellie, who I think wants more out of life than just surviving.
Overall, I really enjoyed Joel's character. Some people really despised his character (e.g., the guy who reviewed TLOU on gamespot), while some people sympathize with him, and the fact that there is discussion debating it says a lot about the writing for this game. One thing I loved about his characterization is that it is consistent with both the story and gameplay. All too often in video games the protagonist will profess a morality (i.e., it is bad to kill) that ultimately conflicts with their actions in the game (i.e., killing enemies), but for Joel, he is ruthless, and whether it is in a cutscene or an actual gameplay encounter, his moral compass is always consistent.
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