In Defense of "I'm Sorry You Feel That Way"

People hate this phrase, but people also like or don't mind this phrase.

People hate chocolate. People like chocolate. The count of the former group is much smaller than the count of people in the larger group (assuming we're talking about sweetened chocolate). Can we ever prioritize discussion of people based on prevalence?

"I'm sorry you feel that way" always feels dismissive and borderline sarcastic to me. It's just "sorry, not sorry" in a different form. To my ears, it doesn't even imply sympathy. It implies the opposite.

Indeed. It is common to not have changed your mind about the thing someone is upset about, but not feel good that they are upset. There needs to be a way to communicate that