It's interesting to hear that perspective from someone whose job it has been to read and read and read stories here, Anton.

Because I feel that there is a tendency - heightened by the Boost programme and nominating editors - to emphasise what might a little uncharitably be described as 'misery porn', or as I tend to call it 'this awful thing that happened to me and the actionable life lesson I learned from it' stories.

This has thus far been my subjective perception, but seems to tally with your more systematic review.

And as the battle against AI filler continues, it's likely to get worse, as human emotion is one thing that writers would want to emphasise to show they are not machines.