Realism vs Satisfaction in Narrative/Storytelling?

[Kreekakon]

So after finishing DBZ a little while back the ending got me thinking a small bit on this particular topic. Here was my initial post, and response to it:

One is the circumstances on how the final main villain Buu was defeated. This is an interesting topic, because it gets me thinking on how much one should relinquish real world realism common sense to create a more optimistic, and wish full-filling scenario. In more spoilerly terms:

Spoiler below!

Kid Buu was defeated by Goku's Spirit Bomb Attack which he created by gathering energy from all of Earth's people. They initially refused to do so out of skepticism when asked by Gou, and Vegeta, but later instantly gave their energy when Mr. Satan (A false hero who took credit for defeating the previous villain Cell) did it.

On one hand it's a very realistic interpretation on how we would react, but on the other hand it's just downright depressing, and cynical to see the entire Earth turn away from what can save their world, and only do it when a false hero does the asking. The whole thing just turns out very depressing.

Which is why I think that sometimes to create a more satisfying viewing experience to the viewer, sometimes it's okay to take advantage of a viewer's suspension of disbelief, and create more wish fulfillment. I would not have noticed it at all if Earth decided to give their energy when Goku, and Vegeta did it.

Now since the example is out of they way let's talk in some more general terms.

Realism is oftentimes praised on the basis that it is able to more properly immerse a viewer in a particular media's narrative, because it boosts their suspension of disbelief, and views something that is happening in said story as reasonable.

However as I indicated in the example above sometimes applying realism can sometimes come into conflict with the "wish fulfillment" of the viewer. Generally speaking this means that what the viewer WANTS to have have happen will not happen on the basis that it is unrealistic.

This will also go slightly sideways to the concept of wish fulfillment in general, and if it is a suitable form of "engagement". Some people dislike the notion of wish fulfillment in narrative, because they feel that it conflicts with actual meaningful, and realistic character development in favor of satisfying the viewer instead.

It may be a shallow form of engagement, but is that really a bad thing? Isn't the whole purpose of consuming media to generally engage oneself? If wish fulfillment will fill that role is really a bad thing that it ends up as being shallow, and sometimes even manipulative?

Also, like in the case of DBZ, if a media has the chance to seamlessly pace a satisfying plot into the narrative, and get away with its unrealism just because of a good suspension of disbelief...then is it a bad idea to go back, and change this aspect for the sake of being realistic?

It will no doubt hurt a viewer's experience during the watch, but there is also the great likelihood that having opted to go for a more "realistic" approach will have the viewer appreciate this aspect of the work in hindsight better, because they realize that it "made sense", and what they wanted to happen in the spur of the moment did not.

So basically that's a very general idea of what I wanted to say on the topic. Now I'd like to hear your thoughts:

What is your opinion on realism vs satisfaction in stories?

Also a secondary question which leans more on whether, or not making the viewer feel good should be a primary objective:

What is your opinion on proper character development (Even if it's nasty) vs satisfaction in stories?

EDIT: Best case scenario of course is that the two are able to go hand in hand. But try to think in the context of cases that cannot, and which path they should take.