Regarding the question of lessening our suffering through Sam's type of meditation, the more you do it, the closer you get to recognizing your real nature, regardless if you ever actually do or not, and you naturally get to put a bit more distance between your awareness and phenomena as well as the emotions that arise. This naturally leads to less suffering.

But, if you stop doing it, you will suffer plenty. I know from personal experience. I haven't done any real meditation in almost 2 years now. It started as an experiment to see if my life would get better and I could accomplish more things without spending so much of my time doing practice and thinking about the nature of reality. Honestly, life's about the same except I feel more "grounded" in samsara now and I'm fine with it for now. I don't think I was going to ever become enlightened, anyway.

Also, I actually suffered plenty when I was practicing for different reasons. Frustration from inability to progress, and frustration about my daily failings. I'm super self-critical, so it feels much better to just not give a fuck and come what may when I die rather than agonizing over my constant inability to be better.