late on Nostr: Now that you wonder: one example where regret can be beneficial. A child does ...

Now that you wonder: one example where regret can be beneficial. A child does something that children do and happens to upset his mother. The mother, having some kind of trauma related to anger, learnt behavior or whatnot. The mother impulsively hits the child in anger and immediately regret because it was wrong. The feeling of regret helps the mother to save the situation and calm the child down, be sorry and tell thay mother did wrong and will not do it again, sorry. Regret helps the mother to learn to observe her reactive behavior and slowly learn to let go of the anger. Here, regret is clearly beneficial.

One could say "yes but you do not need the feeling of regret to reach that". Yeah, sure, but I would like to see someone who doesn't feel regret in that situation. That's what being human is like. We have feelings and there's a reason for it. Same with e.g. shame.

Sure, usually one should let go of regret. The point is, it can be beneficial though.