Game designers are often aware of that irony. This reminds me of a scene in the first Discworld game: Rincewind is talking to a couple of city watchmen, who mention matter-of-factly that they are investigating a perplexing rash of small object disappearances all over the city.
That was the first time that it occurred to me that a) there is something unethical and certainly illegal in what most typical adventure game protagonists do as a matter of course; and b) that is something I would never do in real life
Certainly affected my suspension of disbelief for good...
