I've interacted with lots of HR employees over the years. And for quite a while my wife worked in that field, so I've had some 'inside' insight into the field. And I largely agree with you.

Like with any field, there are good people and bad people in there. My wife (and most of her colleagues) was one of the good ones. She intervened many times at her old job to stop out of control managers from firing store employees for bullshit reasons. Yes, part of that was to avoid the company getting into legal trouble for it. But an equal part was because she wanted to help these employees, because they were clearly being mistreated by their managers. And while not to that level, I've been helped by other decent HR people who went above and beyond company policies to help me during things like bereavement and healthcare needs.

I've also dealt with some absolute shit-heel HR people. People who would spend almost all day spying on employees using CCTV to try to catch them doing something - anything - that they could write them up for. People who would go out of their way to hide and ignore evidence of managers vindictively punishing employees who they (the managers) didn't like. People would use their power as HR professionals to exploit vulnerable employees for sexual motives.

It's a mixed bag. To say all HR people are good is facile (side note: I know you weren't doing that). And equally, to slate all HR employees is also wrong.