The party serves its members or the party dies.
Payback does work, it’s how the party bosses are kept in check by the public.
But it fails when the public no longer understands good governance and is no longer able to throw up 1st rate candidates, choosing instead well-dressed and popular mealy-mouthed con artists, criminals, murderers, fraudsters, and the like ilk, while discarding anyone who might be 1st rate because of some picayune & arcane assumption based on someone else’s lie.
The payback you refer to is not logical, but emotionally based and when you go up against a stiff opponent filled with emotion you will lose every time. The rest of us prefer to vote people in based on their character and deeds, not just throw someone out - a negative approach, reaping only negative results.