I was thinking more along the lines of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Le Guin). One person tortured for their entire life, non-stop, to keep an entire city of people basically content? A behind-the-veil designer of systems might be OK with that. Maybe. Half of the city so-tortured, so the rest can live not just content lives, but like billionaires? The designer will almost certainly ask to tweak things to modify that deal. Half the city lives alright, but kinda poor, and the other half like billionaires? The designer might take that one.

It's about odds and exactly how bad the worst case is.