Remember the old gangster movies had to put up with the Hayes Code which demanded, among other things, that criminals be punished, sometimes with laughable results (original Scarface).
A lot of the “revolution” in gangster stuff comes from the first Godfather movie, by starting off with a wedding it humanizes the Corleone family, makes them sympathetic, puts you in a position to root for them and forgive the things they do for the rest of the movie. One thing that’s interesting in Sopranos is that in season 6 Tony is given a chance to reform a little, not to walk away completely, but to not be so brutal, but he rejects it. And by rejecting it does the things that doom him and his crew. If Tony takes the lesson from his coma dream crime actually does wind up paying.
“..humanizes the Corleone family, makes them sympathetic, puts you in a position to root for them and forgive the things they do for the rest of the movie...”
Precisely my original point... I found the Sopranos to be even more humanizing of that lifestyle.
RE Hayes Code: It wasn’t such a bad thing - society reflected Hollywood, and Hollywood - to a degree - reflected the society of the day. Like it does now, and it’s not very flattering...