I don't know that I'd say that'd include the whole of society...society doesn't necessarily care about knowing new things, discovering new methods; often it's to maintain the status quo, to keep what's there, progress optional.

As far as I can recall at the moment, the stories I know that show magic in a primarily beneficial light usually do not have any visual imagery, terminology, or 'rules of how it works' that would make it seem like science (is steampunk an exception?), as opposed to stuff like alchemy which has several trappings like the lab and research stuff, etc. The way it looks and is presented is important, because when things occur in other worlds, the design elements that evoke certain concepts that do exist in our world place the non-existent thing into terms we can relate to, and I'm saying that usually the ones that evoke real life science have a strong tendency to have that cautionary and pessimistic leaning.

Tales of the Abyss is a notable exception to this, as it actually tries to salvage the system causing harm by 'fixing' it per se -- with research! XD