Can anyone say the same of the known moral degenerates of that era?
Jesus had to overtly call out the leaders, because they affected other peoples' lives, so we only see comparative glimpses of Him rejecting the common degenerate, like the rich young ruler, who rejected Him first.
It's not so much that Jesus never talked to the common people - He preached quite convincingly to the Pharisees as well as the common people - but He went out of His way to actively lead and feed the people who were interested in His preaching. When He fed the thousands, they had followed Him into the wilderness a long distance, and after that preaching He gave them the necessary physical gift so they could get back. When He did eat at the Pharisee's house, He only stayed as long as they behaved. That's very important to note, as it gives us a guideline in just how and to what extent we are supposed to intermingle with the World for the purpose of leading them to Christ. We might even make it to a wicked, vile convention of sexual perversion, but we'd still be there to preach the gospel. Being their friends to subtly beguile them into wanting Christ isn't going to work, and that's not the gospel.
The only people not seeking God are those that are dead-set against it, for whatever reason in their hearts and their minds. Everyone else, however, wants to find him
That's not true. The way is wide that leads to destruction, and many travel it, as opposed to the few who travel the Way of Life. Everyone wants to deny Him. Only those the Father has given to the Son will come. And they will come, regardless of our methods and works on their behalf. It's true that they need to believe Him to come to Him, and they need a preacher to hear about His great saving work (you know the one) - that's the biblical method - but what verse shows Peter or Paul or James cozying up to someone over any real time for the purpose of trust-building? They spend their time with the Worldlings proclaiming truths about God, and it's up to the individual to accept or reject Him, not based on trust of another human being but on God's call to each of us. I know that trustworthiness exists, it's just not something that we need to subvert the real gospel to establish, and doing so is not trustworthy! Loving God and His purpose beyond loving others and self is necessary to help with His work.
Throwing out Bible verses and ladling out condemnation from the outset isn't going to accomplish that task. Which is why, I think, Jesus was fond of speaking in parables. Because people will listen and ponder a story more than a lecture.
I know it seems that way. We've had a lot of teaching from the World on how to approach people, but that famous book about winning friends and influencing people is just a guide on how to subvert the truth in order to get people to believe enough false things about you that they're not offended by your actual views. And we also had a rash of preachers hating people and screaming at their own congregations every Sunday. It's probably useful in some cases to scream, but it's never helpful to hate people's guts. We are told in the Bible to love our enemies. So, we cannot hate them. Love the sinner (including every human, me and Hitler) and hate the sin (both his and mine, equally).
Not accepting Christ is the worse possible sin, and it deserves infinite punishment.
About parables, the Bible says the opposite to what you've said here (and I've heard it more than once on here recently): Jesus taught in parables so the ones who were not called by God would NOT understand and turn toward the truth (Mark 4:10-12). He used straightforward explanations for those who are His.
Bible verses are the sword of the Spirit of God - it's what we are supposed to use with the unsaved. The gospel is inherently divisive (aka, holy; causing separation), even when Worldlings smile back at us, and that's the goal! They do know what's going on. They will not turn, because God didn't call them, and they cannot - we could not turn toward Him by our own wits or knowledge, as extensive as it might have been, or by trusting someone else who told us about Him; He turns us toward Himself.
Making friends with the world is what spiritual adultery has always been (see James 4:4).
Consider 2 Corinthians 4:4 - "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
We have to find ways of glorifying Christ even more than we condemn humanity. Condemnations are just a background tool against which we expose how wonderful Jesus is to have heroically suffered torture on purpose to save His enemies. That's the picture even more than kindness and personal trustworthiness. We cannot hold ourselves up as the standard, so condemnations are the necessary background to hold Christ up as glorious and desirable.
what Christianity has brought, culturally, to the world in its ideals
The World isn't taking on any more of Christ's ways than they need to take on as a mechanism of their father Satan's pretense of being an angel of light. They are mimicking many aspects of God's Word, the Scriptures, while still rejecting God's Word and Christ, Jesus. For instance, the 12 Steps programs ripped good counsel out of the Bible and separated God from it. After a short while, they folded some type of faith in because they had to in order for the other elements to function properly. So they rediscovered the power of idolatry as opposed to pure humanistic materialism. So also this present society is making nice in order to slowly gather the nations together in order to perfect their money machinery and to prepare for Antichrist's rule over an amalgamated people. Being nice to each other and having forms of law which they learned from the Bible are just necessary components of the World getting together without undue tension to accomplish an evil goal.
There are different styles for different people.
We *should* take their state into account when forming our approach to each individual.
The main thing is not to think the actual knowledge of sin, Hell, judgement, and Christ's great saving work are somehow disreputable. They can be told with a soft voice to those who are already upset about their own sin and already want to know the answer. Those who aren't already upset about their sin (a vast number of people) need to understand the problem of sin first. They think sin is a desirable way to have fun, and they don't see that it's the (only) cause of death.