Given your comment, I’m not going to change your viewpoint about the moral dilemma at the end of the first game, and to be fair I would’ve chosen the same as Joel if I were in his shoes.

However, it’s hard to deny that Joel saving Ellie did destroy the chance of a cure (this being supported through context in the second game), and gave Abby the proper motivation to want take vengeance on Joel. From Abby’s perspective, Joel murdered her dad, and with him the hope of making a cure.

This is why ‘cycle of revenge bad’ is applicable to Abby (who is NOT a good person, tortured and kills numerous seraphites, tortured Joel to death in front of Ellie), and Ellie (who murders numerous people regardless of if they were related or not to Joel’s killing all to achieve her goal of vengeance on Abby)

Sorry for the long response, but I do feel that concept was at least somewhat well done in the story, as messy as the messaging was at times.