The townspeople were nothing but enablers, stroking Gaston's ego at every turn. They were satiating his ego as opposed to satiating his intellect.
Actually you have a very good point. While Gaston is selfish to the bone himself, it was in his character, townspeople also played a part in his turning into such an egomaniac. They sucked up to him too much, thus approving all he did. Like women in the village either found him too hot and successful, drooling over him, and most likely ignored his horrible attitude to women (the irony) or just never stood up to him - because he was such a star. And men in the village just were fawning over him as well, over that cool guy they would've loved to be. "Women want to be with him, men want to be him" kinda thing. But that created a perfect environment for him to be this huge (and dangerous) jerk. Because there was no "No" for him there, no stops or limitations, he knew this, he got accustomed to this and he was using this to his full advantage.
It also explains why he was so after Belle - not only because she was beautiful and charming, but because she was like the only one in this perfect environment of his who didn't suck up to him, who didn't do what he wanted unlike others, it was a big challenge for him. To "hunt" this outstanding girl and make her his - partly because it was so intriguing, partly because Gaston wanted to restore the balance of his perfect environment so nobody could be saying "no" to him anymore. It also shows how Belle clearly didn't have a case of "mob mentality" which thrived in this village (no wonder that people from this village broke into "Mob Song" in the end of the movie, but the sad thing is they didn't become mob just then, they already became a mob long ago by being such enablers to Gaston).
It also invites interesting parallels with all those in the Beast's castle. They were Beast's servants, they were turned into objects (literally), their Master was beastly (literally), but they actually had an ability to stand up to him and say "no" to some of his attitudes or acts (like Mrs.Potts or Lumiere did).
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