The goal of life is to increase pleasure or happiness and reduce pain, stress, or suffering. Honestly, this may be the purest philosophy ever that also fits darwinism! I agree with it very much, because the opposite - A LIFE OF SUFFERING - seems garbage, so this logically is great?
Why live a life full of pain and devoid of pleasure? It's against evolutionary signals.
All due to social media: dopamine "addiction". In reality, traditional hedonism cares much more about the long term (naturally, since longer is better than shorter!) Bad for teenagers' self-esteem!
Pretty much all of them are about increasing individual/group pleasure and reducing pain. Egoism and utilitarianism both factor into pain and pleasure - in fact, pretty much all of them do. It likely is the lowest form of sensation for the brain.
When you expect great pain but it turned out only mild, it's actually relieving to an extent.
There is also long-term hedonism, which can co-exist with short-term hedonism. See: Short term vs long term pleasure
A false sense of threat can be re-recognized as excitement by the brain. Like spicy food and rollercoasters. You tend to love it afterwards because the brain realizes the body is actually safe.
Pleasure might be the best thing, or stoic inner peace. Other things might be too abstract or subjective to understand.