Could be and thanks for the input.
The only definition of ‘sacrifice’ in the Bible comes from the Hebrew (zebach/zevach) and the Greek (thysia/thoosia) which means to give over to God something of value such as property (money, wine, time, etc.), a live animal (which was always killed), and praise. This always involved giving over something at great cost to the giver. This, IMHO, involves some level of pain. You may be doing so with a glad heart, but if the item were meaningless then it had no value and was thus not a sacrifice.
Thus far I have not seen anything written on the subject from the ‘sacrifice’ perspective. Gotta keep looking...
The story of Abraham and Isaac shows pain is displaced.
A sacrificial lamb was provided instead. In the NT, the acceptable sacrifice on the cross takes the pain instead, Christ the Lamb. It certainly involves pain, but someone else took the hit for us. That’s nice. And now our thanks becomes an acceptable sacrifice.
There is painful sacrifice for us still, but as far as substitutionary atonement, we’ve been let off the hook, and that alleviates something on our part.