I always thought that Daniel and Dr. Lee getting tortured by terrorists (bad guys that actually exist) seemed more poignant than whenever we've seen the Goa'uld or Jaffa go psycho.
I was thinking the same thing. It was harder to watch and I was much more worried about them! Dr. Lee was great in these episodes. I feel bad for him that he has to live with himself for giving in to the torture though conveniently they are all dead. Though I would be burning the body of the zombie one to be sure.