[HKH2]

If you had a brain scan of pleasure and a brain scan of happiness, do you think they'd be identical?

I think you understand that unbridled pleasure eventually leads to jadedness, because you excluded drugs. The other forms of pure pleasure do the same thing but over a longer timescale. Yes, you'd have a truly amazing time at first. Why do a lot of rich people turn to drugs or gambling?

[dyauspitr]

I don’t think it’s easy to get jaded about unrestricted power over people. I think that’s what the human condition is all about.

[HKH2]

It may not be easy but it's bound to happen if the results are predictable.

Added to that, it's normal for an absolute monarch to be paranoid.