Here is a quote applicable to the excellent point that you raise. It is from the late philosopher Russell Kirk: "Nowadays the catastrophes of the real world put fiction to shame, and the fascination is gone out of the novel. The novelist himself is overwhelmed by a sense of the pettiness of his craft in the fact of tragic reality."
Great quote you posted, and so true, isn't it?
Nobody except madmen could invent some of the stuff that goes on.
Who could ever believe that in real life a severely handicapped person would be starved to death for the third time with the sanction of the courts and officials.
Truly beyond belief.