I think you have a healthy way of looking at it tbh. People tend to use a broad brush so they can feel safer about themselves IMHO. But I find that using a broad brush can lead to missing important things that an individual may not deserve to be labeled with.

Personally, I am skeptical about "images" as people can portray an image and yet be something very different, even something it is wise to stay away from.

There is no such thing as a perfect person either, but everyone we meet we learn something from.

Here is an article that you may enjoy reading shakesphere.
How Successful People Handle Toxic People - Forbes

I remember when I first joined PC the one thing I did not want to do is start a "saga thread". Every once in a while I will create a thread and vent, but I don't really like to do that. Even though I have had some significant challenges, I did manage to turn whatever into something productive. When things got hard somehow I would always say to myself, "Ok this is very hard, but I am going to learn something from it", and that always helped me perservere.

By far, the hardest has been this PTSD that has significantly challenged and often crippled me. Not so easy to make something "positive" come from it, I try.

OE