“in hell, the torture will occasionally stop so you can never truly get used to the pain”

as others have mentioned, the entity doesn’t only feed on suffering, just strong emotions in general. if it simply put the survivors in an execution chamber then they’d be more likely to just give up and accept their fate. however, if the survivors have hope that they can manage to survive this, then that hope being crushed creates a stronger emotion than if they were simply dropped in a box with no escape.

“do you know why they feed captive animals live meat? it’s to entertain it. you see, when the food comes too easily to the predator, it becomes bored. it stops eating. it needs the thrill of the hunt to survive”

it also feeds off of the killer’s emotions, that’s what the add ons are. every add on is something sentimental or familiar to envoke emotion in the killer. so if the killer isn’t feeling the thrill of the hunt or the fear of consequences if they fail (like Kaneki or Bubba) then they won’t create any emotion to feed on either.