I feel like it's really easy to misunderstand Visual Novel endings tbh. Especially where a multiverse is applied. Heck even Re:Zero.

This can apply to a plethora of popular series, but I don't want to name a ton for spoiler reasons lol

Just because the MC can change reali-

-ty, join a different one, or create a new one entirely doesn't mean that they never suffered.
It doesn't cheapen the value of lives already lost. It doesn't remove how much Okabe suffers loop after loop. The scars are still there. A happy ending they fight for doesn't erase the-

-pain they've already gone through.

And even if they live to see the next Timeline, doesn't mean that their friends from the previous Timeline aren't permanently dead even If a version of them is alive in a new Timeline.

"it cheapens their character arc"

No it doesn't. The ch-

-anges in them almost always tend to live on and carry over in one aspect or another.

I tried to include series in this thread where this is more-so obvious and not a spoiler lol