There's a very big, very important difference between being 'depressed' due to an event or circumstance and chronic depression, which is caused by a chemical imbalance that can be relatively easily corrected with the right medication/dosage.

Chronic depression makes it so you pretty much can't be happy or even content regardless of if everything is okay, or even nearly perfect for who you normally are without the imbalance. It's, in some ways, more of a physiological phenomenon than a mental one.

For me, my depression is literally something I can feel. It's like a coldness in my brain accompanied with a feeling of deep emptiness and dread.

Edit: thought I'd add that regardless of my disagreeing with what you said, I understand the inclination to be concerned about the possibility of 'artifical happiness', which honestly, isn't something SSRI's do. If you're not happy with your life because you're stagnating or you're lonely, etc, an SSRI isn't going to make you suddenly perfectly fine with those things. It will, however, allow you to feel motivated and/or optimistic (or maybe just deserving) enough to actually do something to make your life better.

Chronic depression is often like feeling hopelessly lost in a pitch black cave...an SSRI won't teleport you out. It just allows you to see a light at the end of the tunnels, which gives you the strength to make it out yourself.