God loves us so much that he gave us the choice to love him or not to love him. Would not a fragile ego choose forced love from its children over giving them the choice to hate it?

Imagine telling a prospective significant other that they're free to live with and love you forever or they can leave, it's entirely up to them. But oh yeah, if they leave you're also going to lock them in a torture dungeon but it's still really entirely their choice. That's not love, that's abuse and domination. That's a subversion of free-will.

Also, I've got to say, "but wot if like war and torture pestilence and famine's actually not so bad innit" is a pretty weak argument. A papercut's not a big deal for a child, but getting tortured to death because some people who hate your parents also hate you is a pretty bum deal. "What if it could actually be worse" is actually a pretty monstrous rebuttal.