It’s not so much that hard marking is meant to punish unworthiness, induce pain, reduce to cringing servility and such Dickensian horrors as to create the terms in which real excellence can be rewarded - if that’s the acceptable word for it. Great teachers may have other qualities, but most of mine were strong wielders of the red pencil. There seemed to me to be a very essential connection between the high expectation that drove the pencil and the high standard that prevailed in the conduct of the course. It must be awfully boring to make A’s all the time - if not terrifying when the odd B has to be faced.
I suppose I need to clarify that “masochistic” as used above to describe “eager beavers” was self-deprecatory. I couldn’t find the smiley-face and figured it was unnecessary anyway in a place where fun expires so often.