Way I see it, hopepunk in a story can't exist without grimdark elements. The point of hopepunk is fighting against the oppressive narrative of "everything will suck (usually for minorities) and nothing will ever be better" so without anything to really fight against, hopepunk is just some kinda of strawman argument.

That's a really good point! And articulates my vague feeling that happy endings should be earned (and that a bittersweet ending with a dash of hope is also pretty great, I love those).

Grimdark stories have a cultural value for a reason and insisting that grimdark is a "bad" genre is....stupid.

Yeah! Dark 'n' gritty isn't inherently bad, it's just been overvalued for the last decade or so.