Perhaps there are various kinds of “evil”, each better modeled in a different way? Some people hurt others by making a mistake (e.g. by incorrectly assuming that they are actually helping them). Some people hurt others because of a perceived zero-sum conflict (and that perception may or may not be correct). Some people simply enjoy hurting others. It gets even more complicated when talking about groups of people, where then can be e.g. one leader who enjoys hurting others, and thousand followers who merely make the mistake of trusting the leader. Modeling evil as a mistake would explain the actions of the followers, which is what you interact with most of the time, but would fail to explain where this all comes from and why some mistakes resist explanation so much.
Perhaps there are various kinds of “evil”, each better modeled in a different way? Some people hurt others by making a mistake (e.g. by incorrectly assuming that they are actually helping them). Some people hurt others because of a perceived zero-sum conflict (and that perception may or may not be correct). Some people simply enjoy hurting others. It gets even more complicated when talking about groups of people, where then can be e.g. one leader who enjoys hurting others, and thousand followers who merely make the mistake of trusting the leader. Modeling evil as a mistake would explain the actions of the followers, which is what you interact with most of the time, but would fail to explain where this all comes from and why some mistakes resist explanation so much.