Why is Adam and Eve's sin called happy fault?

Answer 1

From Wikipedia:

"Felix culpa is a Latin phrase that comes from the words Felix (meaning "happy," "lucky," or "blessed") and Culpa (meaning "fault" or "fall"), and in the Catholic tradition is most often translated "Fortunate Fall."

The Latin expression felix culpa derives from the writings of St. Augustine regarding the Fall of Man, the source of original sin: "God judged it better to bring good out of evil, than to allow no evil to exist." The phrase appears in lyric form sung annually in the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil:"O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer." The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas[2] cited this line when he explained how the principle that "God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom" underlies the causal relation between original sin and the Divine Redeemer's Incarnation, thus concluding that a higher state is not inhibited by sin. The Catholic saint Ambrose also speaks of the fortunate ruin of Adam in the Garden of Eden in that his sin brought more good to humanity than if he had stayed perfectly innocent."

But -- does the last line above seem outrageous? Traditional doctrine asserts that unbelievers spend a long time (for ever in fact) being punished for being a member of the fallen human race. Is this 'more good'? What do you think?