It really depends. I think, in general, I tend to agree that a jerkish main character can tend to put me off, but there are situations where that initial personality trait of a character being a complete jerk-face can bring about a really beautiful character arc.
Luke from Tales of the Abyss comes to mind. He starts off as an incredibly entitled, aggressive, worthless, whiny teenager at first, but then a severe change in his personality happens when he messes up big time and then you see him go from a worthless, arrogant jerk to a genuinely nice person trying to do the right thing and struggling with self-worth--which he did from the beginning, but it manifested itself in a different way at first.
Without that initial instance of Luke being an unsympathetic jerk, his character arc wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying or earned.
There's even a nice scene where he cuts his hair as a visual signifier that he's changed.