Speaking of, Exalted has what are quite possibly IMO the best demons and Hell ever.
Because demons, in Exalted, are viscious, cruel, dangerous, fundamentally emotionally broken people.
They're not 100% vile self-destructively malevolent personifications of evil (well, except for the Ebon Dragon, but even the other Yozi hate his guts), they're arrogant former-Titans who've been physically and spiritually mutilated by the Solar Exalted and imprisoned inside the guts of their king- every single Yozi is (subtly, out-of-universe) a personification of a mental illness, but they'e still people underneath, capable of (twisted) honor, compassion, and desire for justice; deeply twisted versions of the virtues, sure, but people.
Are they edgy anti-heroes? Well, the Yozi, no. Tormented anti-villains at best (although a cynic could easily say the gods are very little different there...). Regular rank-and-file demons? Oh my fucking Unconquered Sun yes. Shit, Ligier is practically a paragon, and half the time I think he'd do better at the Unconquered Sun's job than the Sun, if only he wasn't part of Malfeas. The rank-and-file Third Circles? Man, those are just people. Bitter, truamatized people utterly emotionally warped into nihilistic cynicism by the fact that, despite being creatures out of an Imperial Chinese H.P. Lovecraft novel, they still exist in roughly the same position as a mortal Cosmic Horror protagonist (terrified and at the mercy of forces utterly beyond their control who can and will snuff them painfully from existence without noticing or caring) but without the merciful inability to correlate how fucked they are.
Infernal Exalted? Equally traumatized in their own ways as the Yozis? Bundles of trauma and issues? Yeah. But, Infernals? Are perfectly capable of saying 'Nah, fuck this self-defeating response to emotional trauma,' overcoming their issues in a way that the Yozis cannot, and becoming better, healthier, well-adjusted Yozis.
I would slit throats for a D&D setting that treats Hell and the Abyss with the nuanced morality as the Yozis get. Give me demons and devils, ba'atezu and tana'ri who do vile things not because they're fundamentally on Team Bad guy because they're Made of Evil and plugged into the Cosmic Asshole Current, but because they are so unbelievably truamatized by their Fall and the cosmic injustices they faced that they've been warped by it. Give me Asmodeus being obsessed with controlling the world by contracts and deals because he can no longer believe in something-for-nothing kindess after the Heaven's betrayals, and requires everything in triplicate backed by binding gaesa before he believes promises, who corrupts and schemes to exert some control over an out-of-control universe. Give me demons who are not neccesarily evil, but alien. Who despise order and hierarchy to truly bizzare extents, but believe destroying cosmic order will better the universe, even if it's laws like 'things fall down, not up.'
Give me devils and demons who probably can't rise above their issues, but give me Fiend-pact Warlocks who may be able to take the thrones of Hell from the thorned grasps of the arch-devils and do better.
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