The people who perform that are some of the lowest of the low: they admit that people who come to them are at a bad point in their life and very in need of help, and they prey on that because it's an opportunity for quick money.
Not really disagreeing with your overall point, but some of the scam stuff is done by people who sincerely think they're helping, and some of those really do help people feel better.
Again, you're not wrong, but I don't feel like all of them are malicious.
I used to act like I could read palms (not for money, just for fun) and you'd be surprised the number of people that can be cold-read into pretty sincere self epiphanies.