Actually that's the whole point of the dark side. By chosing a dark side option, most of the times you will live an easy life and take a shortcut, because you just didn't care about the consequences. And that's what's the whole darkside about, a shortcut to power, but that eventually will hit you back like a boomerang.
The dark side is never a reward, it's more like cheating to win and then in the end finding out someone else was waiting for you to stab you in the back so he/she could claim the victory...