You haven't seen the whole picture. The fact of the matter is that many don't finish their diaries, and most don't come back after consolidation (because they stop obsessing over height and don't feel the need to return). Common complications are sometimes seen as detrimental to healthy adults, but in the scope of LL they're many times routine, and much of it are recovered over time (scarring, range of motion, gait, muscle atrophy, etc.).
And this is the internet: the biggest incentive to review something is if someone doesn't like something -- we like to rant online, find someone that will listen. A louder voice doesn't necessarily make it true. I'm not belittling negative experiences here, I'm just noting that it's in our nature to rant, and we also as readers look for bad experiences to confirm suspicions (confirmation bias; of course, some just focus on the good and ignore the negative experiences).
I'm not saying that it's a cakewalk either, just saying that it's not as dire as you currently see it. Plenty more people get LL done for non-cosmetic reasons, and they live perfectly happy lives.
I suggest you also look at papers on sites like
NCBI or
ResearchGate.
Here's one in particular that discusses outcome satisfaction (mean follow-up time of 6.14 years), plenty more if you take the time:
At the latest follow-up, all patients were satisfied with improvements in self-esteem, distress or shyness and quality of life. They all stated that they would recommend the treatment to others of similar stature. When asked whether they would have this surgery again, 53 answered positively, and the remaining 10 were undecided (Figs. 2,3,4,5).
Based on the parameters of patient satisfaction, axial deviation, restricted joint movement, pronation of the foot, leg length discrepancy and scars, the outcome was excel-lent in 56 patients (88.8%), good in 5 (7.9%) and fair in 2 (3.1%).
The final aesthetic effects were satisfactory in all cases and all patients continued with their previous sport activities