I would agree, except the reason he became a psychopath in the first place was because he lost his family. So him travelling with them like this, and treating them like the family he lost, actually makes perfect sense in my mind. But to each their own.
I'm pretty sad mc didn't make Hardhome his base. It's good coastal location he could make into city/fortress to both act as his power base and against white walkers. I mean he could have literally just used his magic to construct that place. And since it's at coast he could make an port for trade.
If he has earth sense, and from it he came up with mana sense.. why doesn't he just create an air sense? It will let him have a longer range than mana, but not have to bend down and touch the ground. A lot easier to activate, and keep activated.