I was very interested when I read The Art of Happiness, which is where the writer person was interviewing the Dalai Lama. He asked him what people should do if they really hate themselves. The Dalai Lama was actually surprised and had to go and think about it for a while and come back with an answer the next time because it hadn't even occurred to him that people would really hate themselves.
Meanwhile in the west, it gets labeled as "ego," as you say, if you even dare to love yourself.
I feel like this stems from medieval Christian ideas that took the idea of "be humble" all the way to the extreme of "you're an evil sinner and should constantly punish yourself or you'll go to hell" and that just stuck in society even when people don't really believe it specifically, whether they are Christian or not. Because if you go further back in western history, the Greeks and the Romans were definitely not humble, they called everyone not them barbarians and thought themselves very superior to the rest of the world; the Celts weren't humble either as even Alexander the Great said that they were braggarts (because some were working as mercenaries for him). Like there's a balance between being superior or bragging and totally hating yourself and thinking yourself worthless.
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You are absolutely right. I still don't want to believe people would still hate themselves instead of being happy and proud of who you are and what you can offer.
We need to understand the differences between "Superiority or bragging" and thinking you are worthless because no one is, except you see yourself that way.
Thank you so much for your contribution.