Hm "the ends justify the means" is just another way of saying short term pain for long term gain. AKA the definition of investment. It's a tough sell to claim that "all investments are never worth it".

But I'm sure you'd call this a false equivalence within the current context.
The ends often justify the means, but when sociopaths say it, it's almost never true.

For example we've learned a lot from animal testing.
But we've taken it too far and now we're just torturing animals like the asshole monkeys we are.