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Before we got this explanation (and during the confusion before the ep was properly translated), it was one theory that Kyube was balancing good and evil. The lines from the characters prior to that point, such as Kyoko, began to suggest that happiness and sadness must be balanced. If you have a great joy, it must be balanced by a great sorrow. Kyoko keeping her joys small and to herself, meant that any corresponding sorrows would be similarly small; thus her worldview was a valid one.
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In essence, this is still true. Kyubey makes young teenage girls suffer for the happiness and prosperity of the rest of the universe. Thereby, the universe's emotions remain balanced. Few girls suffer a lot, while everyone else is just a little bit happier.
The difference you suggest notes Madoka and company feel very little happiness. Their sadness is clearly far greater than their happiness.
I believe the natural order of the universe is balance, much like flipping a coin will land on heads half the time and tails the other half. Most people go through a mixture of happiness and sadness, and overall the net emotion comes close to zero.
However, when you get technologically advanced races like Kyubey involved, the scales start tipping. Heat death of the universe is, metaphorically speaking, complete energy balance. As the Wikipedia article on heat death states, "If the universe lasts for a sufficient time, it will asymptotically approach a state where all energy is evenly distributed." Kyubey is working against entropy, the natural balancing process of the universe. His method is to exploit the human race, which can defy entropy with emotional energy.
This suggests Kyubey's actions are quite unbalanced, at least where Madoka and her friends are concerned. Every time Kyubey grants a wish, the resulting happiness feels forced and artificial. In Kyoko's case, her wish was literally forced and her happiness was an illusion. Once the wisher realizes their wish has turned out differently than expected, genuine sadness emerges. Mami cheated death, so she seems happy on the outside; however, she was truly lonely and saddened deep inside. Similar to the idea of how material possessions cannot bring a person "true" happiness; we are only pretending to be happy with our stuff. Ultimately, the only real feelings in this show are despair and sadness. What seems like joy to characters is merely an artificial construct, brought about by twisted wishes.