The MLP: FIM villains mostly share an element of "sameness" in expressing their villainy. I'm not saying that the villains all have the same personality traits, or that they aren't distinct in some ways. Still, they all share overarching characteristics such as power-hungry, insanity, and domination in some way or another. Tirek absorbed all the magic in Equestria and caused mass destruction, although I forget if he tried to rule Equestria. In contrast, pre-season 6 Chrysalis invaded Equestria to provide food for the other Changelings. While that is an admirable goal, her attitude and actions portray her as sadistic and cruel, such as how she treated Twilight's friends and mind-controlled Shining Armor to name a few. It's not that she can't have villainous traits, it's that those traits are usually played up over her understandable goals, her treatment in season six comes to mind. My point is that the villains all share similar characteristics that can be summed up in the phrase, I AM EVIL!

Now, am I saying that the villains can't be straightforward bad guys? No. My point is that when it comes to how evil is portrayed in this show, they all seem oddly similar. A positive example of a straightforward villain in the show would be the original big bad herself, Nightmare Moon. Now, Nightmare Moon shares most if not all of the villainous personality traits as the other villains, but what sets her apart is how she's set up. From the show's opening, Nightmare Moon is built up as an evil mythological figure most ponies considered an "old ponies' tale". Add in her goal to bring eternal night, and her motivation, envy of Celestia, and spite towards the ponies who shunned her, and the show set up how big a deal it is that Nightmare Moon returned. Her motivations were simple, and I don't say that to downgrade her, but her motives worked for the narrative and the type of character she's set up as. So If a villain played straight can be written well narratively speaking, what about the others?

My issue is that, while the other villains, excluding Discord and pre-season 6 Chrysalis, might work fine in a vacuum, looked at side-by-side, there seems to be something strangely similar about them. To clarify, this is just a general observation and not an absolute fact. It's just that the irredeemable ones are usually portrayed as complete monsters, while the ones who tend to break this mold tend to get set up for redemption via rainbow magic or a sad backstory. I'm also not saying these villains can't be enjoyed, I just question how they're handled.

If anything seems confusing to anyone, let me know, and I'll see if I can explain myself.

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While the wording is a little muddled, I get your point. Ultimately though, this really comes back to the underlying problem that ruined the show. Faust was the one that really cared, and once she was gone we just got a mess of lazy hacks regurgitating the same tired shit in ever-worse ways. The only two villains Faust gave us were Nightmare Moon and Discord, and as you noted they were legitimately distinct and worked well in their context (remember Nightmare Moon had to function on very little screen time since the primary purpose of the pilot was setting up the core cast). Given the timing it's also possible Faust had some connection to Chrysalis, at least on a conceptual level, although I know the wedding was supposed to be a drama/social episode with (unicorn) Cadence as the antagonist but McCarthy completely changed the concept and added the changelings to make it more of an action/adventure episode.

Also, I do want to push back on one small point. Everything you say here applies just as much to Starlight Glimmer as it does to the others, so there is clearly no exception to the "BECAUSE EVIL!" rule for a planned reformation.

The wording problem was mostly because I lacked a clear idea of what was wrong with the villains. I knew that something was off with how they were designed, I just couldn't put my finger on what. As for Starlight, I'm loathed to mention her since talking about that pony is a mess of different topics, so I avoid talking about her as much as possible.

My main goal was to discuss an issue I had with a lot of the villains and how they're handled, but I get it if everyone thinks this is a bad topic. I'm just throwing my idea out there.