I would choose better to have loved and lost .... I think love is always a good thing .... example if a person loses their spouse of whom they loved .... that is indeed painful .... but also have many loving memories of them that can ease or overcome that loss.
Love involves risk .... worth taking I think ... sometimes it works out .... sometimes not ... but having experienced it .... even if for a short time is better than not experience it at all in my opinion.
I don't how it feels how to have never had a father but my father passed away a few years ago, before the Covid pandemic from lung cancer.
I'm still grieving from his loss and contributes significantly to my depression.
However, I dream almost every night and almost every time, I see him again in these dreams alive and well. We talk in dreams and he knows our problems and we talk about some of the problems we face in real life. Sometimes he offers to fix some of the little problems and they get fixed quite mysteriously. Otherwise, real life is still mostly miserable.
And he always give me this look never to worry, everything's going to be amazing soon. I always doubted him but he's always upbeat and excited in those dreams. We even go places in the dreams and shows me things as well. Dad had a gift of prophecy. It's all weird and not making sense at the moment. The sky opens up and things coming out of it. Weird things.
Even my pet dog is there sometimes, she's not with us anymore too. Each night, it's like I never lost them, they're alive and happy but when I'm awake, I feel miserable again.
It may sound good but I don't know. The dreams are great though, I definitely appreciate these dreams quite much and without these dreams I'd even be more depressed and miserable.
I know the saying "better to have loved and lost". But is it supposed to make you feel better? I really don't know and I probably never will know.
Perhaps, in the context of insights and character, it made me a better person but feeling better? I don't think it did.