I understand what you're getting at, but the Venom we see today is way too far off from the Venom we saw then.
Venom was originally just a hate-driven, evil Spider-Man. He lived to terrorize Peter Parker in every way. And while, yes, he was reluctant to harm innocents, it didn't stop him.
(In the church, he knowingly kills a guard...albeit feeling sorry about doing it.)
Somewhere along the lines, they made Venom's motivations so screwy that I couldn't even make sense of them. Because his innocence was supposedly "taken" by Spider-Man, he now lives to protect the innocent? That's so stupid. Hate is your motivation, Eddie - not compassion.
And of course, over time Venom just got bigger and bigger, and the tongue and drool got more and more exaggerated, and he started talking about eating people.