Basic D&D, LotP, and pretty much all games fitting into the OSR mindset are misery simulators. The main difference between Torchbearer and the rest of them is that Torchbearer has rules to formalize that grind which makes the game a lot more even in tone from session to session.
I love the distributed disposition as health, and I really like how the person taking the action is the one who gets hit. It adds another layer to the conflict and adds more reasons to either script or assign actions sub-optimally if you need to protect someone. Having formalized conflict types with distinct events in the case of failure also adds a nice layer because the players can decide what’s on the line by engaging in one type of conflict or another.
Now all I need to do is get the players in my home game to agree to some rules-prescribed soul-grinding.