i love when my Mistress is happy, when something i've said or done makes Her life better, and in return, She belittles and emasculates me, which makes me want to serve Her even more

Silence Like The Grave by Paradise Lost, but mostly because I'm in the video for it, other than that, Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash by The Pogues, which is fitting considering where we are

A caring Dom with high standards and expectations and a cruel streak

i guess it's Yorkshire Pudding for me

The op asked what a male sub gets out of being humiliated (and i’m talking about *** as a fetish in itself).
i’ve sometimes asked myself what i enjoy about it, and i’m still not entirely sure.
i do remember that one frequent early fantasy for me was bring ***d to date the least popular girls in Read more… our school and suffering humiliating ridicule as a result.
That was back in my naive, less enlightened boyhood, of course.
It wasn’t that i was a particularly disliked kid in school, and i had girlfriends throughout who i found attractive.
Who knows why i enjoy that feeling of humiliating inferiority? Strict mum? Passive dad? Nature? Nurture? A bit of both?

i have had a tendency to tftb in the past, but i am trying to learn how to stop doing it

i agree with You completely there. It is a complex subject with untold subtleties. If i were to publicly announce one of my kinks or fetishes, there would certainly be a few Men who wouldn’t dream of doing something so humiliating, whereas i might regard it as a “reward.”
As for Fem Dom (and i Read more… would also include ***d feminisation) there is a valid argument to be made that any feeling of *** a male sub might feel by being belittled by a Woman could be considered worrying.
Complex with subtleties

And yet, a sense of being “humiliated” can be an essential part of a sub’s make-up. i think it’s probably best to differentiate between vanilla *** and Dom/sub ***

Semantically, yes, I suppose it could be argued that there is an inherent element of “***” in any Dom/sub relationship, but it might not be a primary source of enjoyment or requirement for a male sub.
i was thinking more in terms of a sub for whom restraint or *** might be their need. You could Read more… argue that there is an element of *** in accepting bondage or punishment, but i don’t think it’s the same as the “***” that a sub like me “enjoys”