I do despise when Will and El's trauma is compared and when fans try to one-up each other with it. The whole trauma Olympics thing is so very stupid because they both went through the most terrible things imaginable, but (and hear me out) I do, in fact, think that El had it worse.
I mean, is that crazy to say??
Just listen. Will had a terrible home life and was bullied, that's all true, but he also had a very loving family (his mother and brother), amazing friends, and a place to call home. Even his ending wasn't so bad, at least not to the degree that so many fans try to make it out to be, or to the extent where it's in any way comparable to El's. He's alive and well, with an ambiguous ending where you are free to imagine Byler happening or him being rich, happy and old, famous, with a family, or whatever the hell you want. He is still there.
What exactly did El have? Nothing but a lab full of random researchers who never interacted with her, "siblings" who bullied her relentlessly, an old man who stole her from her very much alive mother and then proceeded to fry her mother's fucking brain to the point where she was no longer able to do anything and had to be institutionalized (which, like, no one ever really talks about how scary and awful that is), and then has the audacity to try and act like a father to her while also not teaching her anything, so she's left ignorant to everything, and using all that against her to confuse her and use her. Then, when she is finally free from that and out in the real world, where she gets love, friends, and a family, she's still getting bullied, still being used and seen as a weapon, and being put on the front line for all these deadly situations where she's constantly being brutalized throughout, all while she still doesn't understand so many things and is simply trying to live life and be normal, to simply be seen as an actual human being. And then she just dies…or even if you think she's alive, and if she actually is, she's all alone and has nothing. And mind you, she STILL doesn't know a lot of things, and she'll have to learn all on her own, but there are so many things she'll never get to know (like the feeling you get when you drop on a rollercoaster) and won't be given the chance to because of her lack of freedom (because even in "death" she still isn't free!!!).
El's whole life, since birth, has been unfair (as Hopper stated) and complete bullshit. She's had no one. No friends, no family, no love, and has been constantly abused and used, seen as nothing more than a superhuman super weapon whose only purpose is to save, serve, and elevate everyone else, without any consideration of her own well-being. And every time she got a taste of a normal life, it was always ripped away from her in some way. She was born forced into this nonstop cycle of abuse, where it eventually wore and tore her down and killed her in the end because there was just no other way to ever fully escape it. She is just an incredibly tragic character who never truly got to be the little girl she wanted to be and that she should've been. My heart and soul ache and mourn for her.