I think part of the appeal of the "bad boy" is that he's an independent thinker. He's a pragmatist and a bit of a rebel. He's not a dogmatist who adheres to the "good guy" image without questioning the point of it.
Take the Han Solo kind of rogue figure and compare him to the Luke Skywalker as a nerdy but familiar analogy. The Luke Skywalker figure doesn't exhibit much independence; he is a discipline following the teachers of his masters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Meanwhile Han Solo is someone who figured things out on his own by just surviving in a harsh environment where he had to fend for himself as a smuggler.
So I think it's that independent quality that attracts when it comes to the pragmatic rogue or the rebel type. It's more interesting in general even from a literary perspective over a dogmatic "do-gooder".
Me when I first became familiar with the nice guy/bad boy phenomenon: "So you're telling me that I don't have to worry about perfect manners, and women will chase me all the more for it?"
I just don't understand why any man would complain about that...
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