What makes him a despot is that he thinks his people need punishing at all. If he actually created them, he would know their nature and love them just for being his creatures; he wouldn't declare them guilty of capital crimes just for being themselves. And blindly legalistic also for deciding that since HIS law demands a death, one person can die in another's place.

He made the law that convicts the people he created. Mercy and love would be to change the law. Wisdom would be never to create such a law in the first place.

We would have no respect for a human king who acted in those ways. Why should we love or worship a god who shows less wisdom, love, or mercy than we expect from a human one?