Should we really care for them differently, feel a different degree of sympathy for them? It depends. If that promiscuous fellow who got AIDS says how weak and foolish I was thank you for you're compassion, I can be sympathetic.
OTOH, if that fellow said I had a blast, give me money who self-rightous prig so I can keep partying regardless of who else I infect, I'm not going to be.
I certainly agree with you that we expect some remorse and some reformation of behavior from the reckless person. Otherwise he loses our sympathy.
But let's stipulate such remorse and determination to reform. Then is their an enduring moral difference that would say don't treat the one as compassionately as the other?
That's what the person to whom I was originally responding seemed to think. I was just wondering why.