I always agreed intellectually that there is a God and that his son came to the earth in flesh and returned to Heaven after.
But I can't also help but think that God in a lot of ways is like an autocratic dictator or does actions and has characteristics similar to what we would call as an archetypical "authority" on Earth. I believe the Bible states directly that God is the superior authority in many of its books, and it also states directly that those who happen to reject his ways will suffer in eternal damnation even if they were otherwise "good" people.
Otherwise good people? According to what standard? God sets Himself as the standard of good and to His perfect standard no one measures up - or gets anywhere close. It is because this is so that we need forgiveness and redemption.
God is Sovereign over all He has made. He has created everything and, as Creator of All, He has a singular prerogative to call the shots within His Creation. He also sustains everything moment-by-moment which further cements His right to order things as He likes. What is shocking is that we would oppose His sovereignty, defy His right to rule. It's His universe; He can do as He likes with it. And He will, whatever we might think about Him doing so.
That means there is no room for negotiation, it reminds me of the situation where the mob boss says that your friend will be shot if you choose to disobey the mob dealer's command. Free will is a whole other can of worms.
I hardly think God is a "mob boss." There is a massive category error in your comparison. You are right, though: There is no negotiating with God. We have no basis from which to do so with God. We have nothing He needs. He's perfect, requiring nothing.
Lastly, the Bible frequently talks about God being the literal end of pleasure in itself - it just makes it look like everyone who gets to be in Heaven with him will be in a full catonic state and they will only be worshiping God for how great he is.
And the problem is? If one loves God, this isn't a dim prospect at all. Only those who have rejected God, who believe they should be free of Him, find an eternity lived in praise of Him repulsive. In any case, catatonic euphoria isn't anything like the picture the Bible paints of eternity with God. Not even close.
On the surface of things, this would definitely make God look like the ultimate narcicist who only does whatever plan he does for mankind to worship him and admire how great he is.
So, when you watch the winner of the 100 meter sprint at the Olympics run his victory lap, arms in the air, cheered by the watching audience as he does, proud and basking in the praise of the crowd, do you think, "What a show-off. He's such a narcissist"? I don't. I think he's worthy of all the praise he's getting, given what he's done in winning the sprint. Now, all the sprinter has done is win a ten-second footrace. In comparison to the creation of the entire universe and its continual sustainment, winning a quick sprint is incredibly trivial. But people don't balk at praising the sprinter, anyway. How much more worthy of praise is God, then, as the Maker and Sustainer of Everything? If anyone deserves endless praise, it's Him. He's worthy of such praise, acting to warrant it by His incredible, mind-blowing act of creation and by virtue of the excellency of who He is.
What is strange to me is to hear people suggest God is merely vain, as though He has done nothing to deserve our praise at all.
He also wants his creation below him to be equally mediocre.
Mediocre compared to what?
The late Christopher Hitchens made an interesting comparison of God's eternal kingdom and a "celestial North Korea" and in some ways it does in fact remind me of that, if we are indeed correct about our understanding of the Biblical description of it.
Consider the source of this description. If nothing else, Hitchens was deeply prejudiced against the God of Christians, acutely despising the God revealed in the Bible, and his comparisons reveal this prejudice rather than accurately describe affairs relating to God.