There are in fact many different facets to your questions :

First : There are some disputes concerning the fact that Hearst truly said this quote, and its one of the 10 most misreported stories of american journalism according to author Joseph campbell. However, it is undeniable that the story, that has been relentlessly repeated since the beginning of the 20th century, has been incredibly useful to illustrate some of the extremes in terms of news creation during the Yellow journalism period.

Second, i would not venture into the question of evaluating whether an individual as complex as Hearst (or anyone else) was evil or not... He was a creature of his time, he ran for public office and took sometime controversial stands on difficult issues. That part of your question might be more at home with /askphilosophers or /ask theologians (if such subreddits exist...).

Finally, saying that he started yellow journalism is an over-generalization. It is true that his Morning Journal was the first to use the Yellow ink that came to illustrate yellow journalism. But in fact that type of journalism was truly the consequence of an intense rivalry between two media magnates - Hearst and Pulitzer - to gain market shares amongst the working class and the immigrants of New York. More simply put, Pulitzer was the first to employ sensationalism in order to sell copies, but Hearst was quick to make that formula even more potent, and through by trying to outdo one another, they essentially created yellow Journalism.

Source : Starr, Paul (2005). The Creation of the Media.New York:Basic books (pp.255-258).