Like so many people have pointed out before, the fact that the choice is tough and that most people would prefer to not have to make it at all is the whole point. It's even conveyed ingame by Simon's reluctance to hurt either of the robots.
The only problem for Simon is that he doesn't have the luxury of simply sitting down in the sand and choosing not to participate. If he stays outside on the ocean floor long enough, he'll eventually run out of oxygen and die. Same thing if he somehow finds his way back into one of the previous bases, he'll either starve or run out of power.
In other words, he's FORCED to proceed, and in extension, to make an unpleasant choice.
For me, that's the whole beauty of the situation. The simple fact that there is no alternative. You HAVE to choose. There is no other way out of it. Much like in real life, you don't always get a safe and easy path and sometimes the only way to progress is to compromise yourself.
Also, you say that the game is abusive, but is it really?
Sure, it doesn't always let you choose what to do and it often forces you through situations that you'd rather not be in. But you're never forced to do something because of lazy developers or because someone on the design team made arbitrary decisions. There's always a reason.
For example, in this specific situation, the game is forcing you to zap one of the robots specifically because it wants to force you to break your morals and invoke feelings of disempowerment and helplessness. In other words, they're not taking power away from you because they can't be bothered to come up with another way of doing it, they're taking power away from you because it's the only way to give the player the experience that they want to impart.
The fact that it works and that they do it so well is really something that they should be applauded for.
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Issue: I simply refuse to use the stun gun on any robot in Delta
