I don’t agree with this statement, though I suppose it’s because we’re thinking about it differently. If you mean happiness that is coupled with others’ suffering, than that is not net happiness. When I say “happiness” and “suffering,” I mean the sum of both of those things in all people affected by whatever moral decision is being pondered. By the same token, suffering in one place to achieve better returns some place else is obviously not net suffering (e.g., hours of painful practice or work or whatever, but that is directed toward something that makes it all worth it.) But suffering for its own sake, or as a purification, etc., a la Mother Teresa, JP2, and the cult of suffering they both seemed to support, is morally very bad. So I would be curious what you could possibly mean by “suffering is often good,” unless it’s what I said above, suffering in the pursuit of something that is worth that suffering.
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