Well he might be a villain, but his motivations are important I think - first of all, is he a good ruler (ie cares about his people)? You can be a villain in the traditional sense and still be a good ruler.
Someone brought up the idea of wraiths doing the dirty work for people - this could be a misguided attempt to help his people - stop all the menial labour - start working towards a country filled with culture, art and knowledge.
And of course there is always the expansion prospects - why use living people and decrease your population when you have what is essentially an expendable slave race to do it for you instead? Maybe not all the worlds that your characters can go to are habitable? And it makes no sense sending mortal people to Mars if you didn't know that they needed a space suit - but I doubt it would bother a wraith at all.
If he's a poor ruler (ie doesn't care about his people), then wraiths can be good way of subjugating his population, ruling through fear and at the same time are a way of ensuring that he has absolute loyalty when he really needs it - need to assassinate the beautiful princess? Don't choose your hunky, emotionally troubled assassin, choose the emotionless wraith and she's much less likely to survive to raise a rebellion against you etc.
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