You've pin pointed part of my major problem with Costner's version. Robin becomes a thief more to get revenge than to do what's right. Praed's version views what he's doing as a necessary evil. He's doing this for the people instead of giving them the spoils of what he was going to do anyway.

Another thing I like about Praed's version is that he occassionally screws up royally. Costner's is always right and his plans always ingenious. Praed often gets out of binds more by luck or picking superior friends than anything else.