Is man good or evil?

Hobbes (+1679) assumed that man is wicked and, thus; the only way to get a functional society is with the Leviathan: a powerful sovereign. This is the seminal idea behind modern statecraft.
How important is to have the correct answer to the primordial question “is man basically good or evil?”.
To me, the most promising answer is the Catholic one “Man is good by design, but some primordial damage has left him somewhat weaken in his ability to do it right. This weakness is curable only with the help of the other fellow man”