Star Trek

Had this episode had Picard enter a derelict ship, enter a monolith,
or visit a dead world, where a strange computer ripped into his mind,
the way this probe did, then yes, it would've been very touching
if everything else remained the same. As it was, there's going to
be a very mixed reaction to this one, and rightfully so, I think ...

So you're saying that the fact that the probe singled Picard out and tapped into his cortex without provocation is the key to the arguement?  In your example, Picard would've been knowingly taken the risk of entering the monolith or derelict ship?

It just doesn't make any sense to have the
aliens seek out a poor soul in space and
violate them with a probe that pierces the
very core of their being and manipulates them,
deliberately, like that. If it happened because
Picard ventured where he aught not have, then it
could've been as special as it seems to have strived
to be. But since they committed to doing it the way
they did, the episode loses that special magic and
instead invites the kind of controversy we have here.

Nuffin' wrong with controversy.

In all honesty, The Inner Light -- for me -- falls under the category of "meh". But it does raise some interesting issues which are certainly worth discussing.

Eleen or whatever her name was, may have been "real" at some point -- we will never know the answer to that one. But in this context, she was no more than a blip in a computer programme. Therefore she could neither be prostitute nor sadist.

She was not a real person.  This may be a crude analogy, but it is more like a holodeck program (but only interacting with the mind, not the body).  Physically, Picard was on the bridge the whole time.

^ I meant "real" in the sense of being based on a real person as the EMH was based on Dr Zimmerman.