It really bothered me at the time when they first of all presented Caroline's torture as the wrong thing, and then just a few episodes later Lexi is showing Elena the best way to torture Stefan into feeling again. Still I always figured it was some kind of messed-up ritual of Lexi's (and not a very long term successful one either) to bring Stefan back from his Ripper binges, I don't know what to make of the show now presenting it as the norm to torture vampires to get them to turn their humanity back on through feeling something. Stefan's goal last episode made more sense to me with appealing to nostalgic memories for Elena, I don't get what just feeling physical pain is supposed to achieve exactly