Yes. It is sad.

I very much wanted to give birth naturally. My daughter was born 12-26-1989. I was laboring on Christmas and had a nurse with a shitty attitude. I am lucky I at least got to have a vaginal delivery. I believe I could have managed to avoid the epidural and (ugh) horrifying episiotomy etc with better care. Long story. I was even more determined to have a natural delivery for my son, born 7-29-92. He was a footling breech and I was passing bloody show and knew exactly when I conceived, and he was 10 pounds, so there was no doubt he was full-term. I tried external version but he wouldn't stay head-down and had to have a scheduled section without even going into labor. I understand the necessity, but I'm still sad and he is now 30 years old. I stopped at two kids and will always feel some regret that I will never have the experience that I had wanted my whole life. On the other hand, my daughter gave birth to her two children without any interventions. Her hospital births were essentially home births in a hospital. But her first labor took so long to actually start that she barely escaped the scenario you describe. If she hadn't gone into labor just when she did, they'd have insisted on an induction. But her labors were so joyful for her, and being by her side and helping her labor was healing for me. I sort of got to experience it by proxy. She felt so powerful after these experiences -- like she'd climbed a mountain or run a marathon only more so.

Also? My son, born by section, was as blue as a little Smurf and took a very long while to breathe. Sections are not as easy and risk-free as everyone seems to assume, and the recovery is far, far longer. We do far too many of them.