Something I've been thinking.

The Good Natured trait is so popular because it subtracts 5 points from the four combat skills- Guns, Melee, Energy and Explosives- of which a character typically only uses one, and invests them into four non-combat skills- Speech, Medicine, Repair and Barter- all of which are at least somewhat useful for every character. Once you've invested 5 points into the combat skill you use, you're left with 15 free skill points.

However, suppose I want a Guns-centered character to take the Cowboy perk. The requirements for Cowboy are Guns 45, Melee 45, which means that you're going to have to invest in Melee. The skill books for melee are all VERY far into the game, and even with them you still don't reach 45 Melee. Which means that if you took Good Natured you're left with only 10 "free" points- in which case, is it worthwhile compared to other traits you could take? Cowboy guns are usually very durable (and reliable when below optimal condition), and they mitigate the downside of Built to Destroy extremely well; their spread is low so Fast Shot doesn't hurt accuracy too much, etc. So, how worthwhile is Good Natured to a Cowboy?

The cowboy perk is the best perk in the game combat wise,so id get it no matter what.

You're still looking at a bonus to 4 skills and a subtraction to two. Getting melee up to 45 once you've gotten a few skillbooks isn't that much of a task.

I just did this build tbh, for a caravaneer build.
If you set your lockpick to 30 and take comprehension.
You can use lock pick on the hidden supply cave just above Nipton for a 4 point boost very early on.
You also get Lucky to use if you have a spare one use skill magazine.

I took this at level 8 or so ( I hunt giant rads and other big game early on for fun ).
Just ignore your gun skill a bit ( 50 60 points ), untill you have cowboy, as most threats are not that tough even at low levels with the right tactics.

That or do what everyone else here seems to do, and set Charisma to 1 and put two points each in Dex and Strength.
However I really frown on that so don't let on if you do ( JK ).

Melee skillbook locations are Jacobstown, Cottonwood Cove, Cannibal Johnson's Cave and Hidden Supply Cave. Jacobstown is VERY far away, Cottonwood Cove is a Legion location which is an issue if you have bad rep with the Legion, prematurely exploring the Hidden Supply Cave can cause problems with the Camp Searchlight quest.

The point is that a Melee Weapons skill level of 45 isn't a big investment of skill points in order to pick up Cowboy. You'll start no lower than 15 or so with a reasonable strength that you should have on this type of build, over 30 if you put a TAG on it. 6 - 8 Intelligence most likely and perhaps Educated as well, you're looking at around 15 skill points per level lets say. With a base of 15, add 5 skill points a level (only 1/3 your per level allotment) and you'll have the requirements done by level 7, just in time to pick the perk next level when it becomes available. This isn't that big a deal really, it's no where near the requirements for a perk like Jury Rigging or Slayer at 90 in a skill so the -5 pts from Good Natured isn't worth worrying about.

My main character has good natured and cowboy. I like it.

Same for me , good natured + cowboy on my last playthrough .
Basically because when i first built my character , i gave him 1 charisma so i could boost other attributes like luck and intelligence . So i was pretty low on barter , speech etc at the beggining , hence the need for good natured .
Cow-boy perk is difficult to ignore , half the guns in game are cow-boy weapons , many NPC and the general atmosphere of the game is suited for a cow boy character , not to mention the perk itself is one of the best in the game if not the best

For mine I lowered strength to 4 and endurence to 3, then raised charisma by 4.
No benefit, but as they were a trader that I wanted to put points into speech and barter, I raised a stat to reflect the build on normal HC.
Got cowboy at level 10 just before reaching the Mojave outpost, having beaten every giant radscorpion, ghoul, golden gecko, nightstalker and raider below Sloan.