doesn't change how the writers are setting things up. The "Negans" (haven't read this far into the comics so dunno if the characterization is consistent) aren't there to garner sympathy per se, they're there to show the shift in Rick's group.

(I would argue that they did show a lot of Sam's back story with the whole stairs thing though. He was annoying and bratty, but you can't blame the kid for being scared shitless. Carol was a big part of his fear, which I'm sure she feels extra guilty for).

> And I wasn't necessarily asking for the captors to be brainless psychopaths, but I at least wanted some sense of danger to the threats they were mentioning.

This might be semantics, but while in their individual skirmishes they've been ineffectual, that's not the general sense I've gotten from the group. They did strongarm Hilltop for their crops (50%!), sent one of Hilltop's own to murder Gregory and if not for a rocket launcher, had three of Rick's top soldiers pinned down. The dude Glenn took down had polaroids of heads bashed in. This was not a group that played around. Again, the actions of Rick's group can justifiably be rationalized, but they had the element of surprise in every single conflict.

> The captors didn't even take advantage of the fact Maggie was pregnant since the threat of harming her would giver her leverage over Rick.

True, feeding in the whole "normal people that became hardened" narrative. They're not mindless killers, they all went through some shit, just like Rick's group. If The Walking Dead had been following "The Negans" for six seasons, wouldn't we be shocked if Paula and 'Chelle had slit some strange girl's pregnant belly for no reason?