[Avodah] having a melech: lechatchila or bideved???

[Harvey Benton]

Is having a melech a bidieved or a lechatchila?
In the torah it mentions "when you will ask for a king like the nations around you...."  This sounds like to me that God does/did not want us to have a king like the rest of the nations, but, like the spies, and the shlav, God went along with it and instituted the mitzvah of us having a king. 
This is also the view of the Rambam, if I am not mistaken, regarding the korbanos. It is only to appease us that Hashem instituted the korbanos as mitzvos, not necessarily because He wants us to have them....... HB