The people on the farm were good. Tyrese's group was good. Alexandria people are good. The Hilltop people seem to be decent. They've met good groups many of which have been added to the cast. You are right that the comics (and by extension the show) follows a pretty similar path of finding somewhere they think is safe, having to fight/run from safe place, being out on the run/homeless, finding somewhere they think is safe.

I think the point they're trying to make with Negan is he wants to totally and completely break them. He's not messing around with idle threats. He kills one of them as retaliation for the people Rick's group killed and then another when Daryl disobeys him. While it's brutal I don't agree with others that it was senseless or gratuitous. He did what he said he was going to do. Nothing more, nothing less. If he was just doing things for his amusement then he would have had Rick go through with cutting Carl's arm off. But he was able to accomplish his goal without that being necessary and so he stopped Rick.

Negan's a weird character. He's obviously deranged and yet he sort of has a code and a system. He's not doing things just to do them or because he thinks it's fun (although he does seem to enjoy it). He wants obedience and has no qualms employing brutal methods to get it but he's not just killing people willy-nilly.