hakaras ha'tov for the bad as well

 אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה וַיָּגׇר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט וַיְהִי⁠ שָׁם לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל עָצוּם וָרָב

One of the lessons of the mitzvah of bikkurim is the need for hakaras ha'tov.  According to Rashi, this pasuk is referring to two separate, unrelated events: 1) Yaakov and family being spared from Lavan, the Arami, who sought our destruction, and 2) in addition -- as Rashi writes, ועוד אחרים באו עלינו לכלותינו -- we were also saved from the Egyptians.

According to Netziv these are not two ideas, but one.  It was decreed in the bris bein ha'besarim that Avraham's descendents would be in galus for four generations, but where that galus would be was not specified.  In theory, Yaakov and his family might have spent the entire galus in Aram.  In reality, because Lavan was was merciless in his treatment of Yaakov and was bent on the destruction of Yaakov's family, Hashem arranged events so that Yaakov would leave Aram and go down to Mitzrayim, and that became our home of the rest of the duration of the exile.

Based on the Netziv's interpretation, we are not thanking Hashem for delivering us from Egypt.  We are thanking Hashem for bringing us to Egypt!  As bad as conditions were there, the alternative was far worse. 

This is a new dimension to hakaras ha'tov.  It's not enough to say thanks for all the obviously good things that Hashem gives us.  We also have to thank Him for what sometimes seems like bad things as well, because there are alternatives that are far worse, alternatives we may not even be able to imagine, that we are being spared from.  

הַשְׁקִיפָה מִמְּעוֹן קׇדְשְׁךָ מִן⁠ הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבָרֵךְ אֶת⁠ עַמְּךָ אֶת⁠ יִשְׂרָאֵל (26:15)

The Midrash observes that the term הַשְׁקִיפָה is always used in reference to seeing something bad, never something good.  For example,  וַיַּשְׁקֵף עַל⁠ פְּנֵי סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה וְעַל⁠ כׇּל⁠ פְּנֵי אֶרֶץ הַכִּכָּר (Braishis 19:28)  Our pasuk is the exception to the rule, because גדול כוחן של מוציאי מעשרות שמהפכין לשון רעה לטובה, in the merit of offering maasros what ordinarily has a bad connotation is transformed to good.

The Torah has different words for seeing things: ראיה, הבּטה, השׁקפה  We need an expended vocabulary for the act of seeing because there are so many different ways of looking at things.  We can look at things from a distance and we can examine things up close; we can take things in in a general way with a glance and we can minutely examine something. השׁקפה is when we put something under a microscope and take a careful look at it.  This is why the term generally has a negative connotation.  Nothing is perfect, and the more carefully one examines something, the more likely one is to find its flaws and defects.

The term הַשְׁקִיפָה in our parsha refers to that same type of examination -- it's not an exception to that meaning -- but in this case the outcome in different  The more carefully one examines the actions of those who are mafrish maasros (Ksav v'ha'Kabbalah), even observing those actions for the extended period of three whole years up to the point of biur (RCK in Divrei Siach), the more perfect and laudatory their behavior seems.  Unlike other things which reveal their flaws under careful inspection, here, careful inspection only highlights the exceptional qualities.