Yeah, that's a big part of it, too, the "good writing" standard that requires no contrivances and no blatant tugging of heartstrings.

But when you say, "makes people feel," which feelings are we talking about? Because the kind of satisfaction that comes from melodrama is different from the kind that comes from "literature," right? I mean, we've both read very good things that escaped the melodrama curse even though they probably should have succumbed (The Lovely Bones comes to mind). Of course, I'm not sure how you would hit the stuck-together-sharing-a-sleeping-bad-and-then-sudden-sex plot and still be beautifully written with elegant metaphors, but surely someone can do it. Just not me.