Better late than never.

Righto. "A protagonist that embodies the flaws and weaknesses of the writer distracts the reader from the narrative itself." My initial reaction to this statement was, "I couldn't disagree more." Of course it wouldn't distract the reader from the narrative - a protagonist without flaws and weaknesses would be impossible to relate to, and quite frankly, exceedingly dull. What use is a protagonist if the reader/audience cannot identify with them? So surely it wouldn't distract the reader from the narrative, it would complete the narrative.

But then I read the statement again.
"A protagonist that embodies the flaws and weaknesses of the writer distracts the reader from the narrative itself."
Well, now. This is an entirely different statement altogether. What we're looking at here is, as a writer, how far is your protagonist based on yourself? I think there will always be some aspect or personality trait of the writer in the main character, whether it's done consciously or not. Is this a good thing? It can be. 'David Copperfield' is one of Dickens' most popular and well loved novels, and is widely regarded as being semi-autobiographical. Or 'The Great Gatsby' by F.Scott Fitzgerald; his own opinions on women of the time were pretty clear cut, and this undeniably seeps through into his writing. Ultimately, however, what we've got to consider is this - does it distract the reader from the narrative? To put it quite simply, it shouldn't. But in my opinion, it can. Not always - but it can. To use the example of Cheever, there are some quite blatant parallels between him as person and the characters he creates. 'The Swimmer', for instance, depicts a man struggling with alcoholism, an addiction we know Cheever battled with for most of his adult life. Does this affect our reading of the narrative? Well, yes. Knowing that the writer has experienced (to some extent) what the protagonist is experiencing adds a certain depth and credibility to the writing.
So should we only ever write about what we know?