Heck, I'm reasonably confident that it's possible to use the Damsel in Distress trope without it contributing to the toxic atmosphere of sexism.

P2 Innocent Sin uses it to setup the story in a fantastic way. Maya is locked in the shrine with a little kid by all the other kids because they think it will keep her from moving away (as she’s their “big sis” and best friend). shrine catches fire. she gets saved by the little kid in there with her, who summons his Persona to bust them out. she has a crippling fear of fire after that.

all the little kids know she made it out alive, and they feel terrible about what happened, except for one little kid; he was told by the embodiment of the worst elements of humanity’s collective conscious that Maya was killed by the fire, which leads him down the path to become the Joker and recreate his circle of friends later in life with different people, helping take part in a world where rumors become truth.

game ends with Maya (who has been a playable team member through the entire game, btw) being taken by fake Hitler on a spaceship and crucified, then stabbed with the spear that killed Jesus. the little kids (who are now older) accept the terms given by the embodiment of the positive elements of mankind’s collective conscious, that Maya will be revived and their world rebuilt only if they willingly give up their memories of Maya and each other.

all but one kid accepts the terms. the kid that doesn’t, wills himself to retain the memories into the new world. that mistake opens the door for the negative embodiment to start the “rumors become real” shit all over again in the new world, which is what P2 Eternal Punishment entails.

in P2 EP, Maya is the main character for the whole game. she’s “distressed” in the sense that when she sees the guy who willed his memories to survive, she feels a pain in her chest where the spear (which she doesn’t know about in this new world) pierced her ribs. crazy shit happens, her and her troupe try to figure it out, and it ends with the guy that willed his memories deciding to go back to the world his memories came from. so it kinda reverse into a Dude in Distress for most of the game, and ends with no happy ending since Maya will never get to see the guy that saved her from the fire ever again, and he will never get to see the biggest influence on his life ever again.