It's a relief to know you feel the same way. It did occur to me after I hit post that perhaps I was presenting myself as some monster of immorality with no interest in right and wrong, which was not at all my intent. It is, as you say, the suffering that's the problem, both morally and as a storytelling choice. In fact, it often quite overpowers any attempt on the character's part to do good, because if the only way to be redeemed is to suffer, why bother with the good works? Which is a shame, because that part of the story is so much more interesting. Actually, I wonder if the pervasiveness of the redemption arc isn't discouraging people from telling stories about people making an effort to change and do good, because showing someone trying to do good could be seen as showing them in a positive light, and you can't do that until they've suffered their just punishment. I have certainly seen story lines criticised in just those terms.

Revenge is good too, anything from the dark 'Woe! I am become my enemy' type to the 'Revenge is a duty, not just a right' school. About the only type I don't like is the one that doesn't actually happen, where the victim's friends gather round to tell them at length that they aren't that sort of person and will regret stepping over that line for the rest of their lives. There I always wish that once, just once, the victim would say robustly that they're exactly that sort of person and will look back on it with great pleasure and satisfaction. Because, you know, there are all sorts of moral reasons to forgo revenge, but worrying it will damage your mental health by marking you out from your peers who have never had to face the issue is not one of them. (Even worse when the friends in question aren't, say, high school students, but rather people who in real life would almost certainly be exactly that sort of person themselves.)