I read your answer over at Ali's LJ, and I thought it was a great one from a writing standpoint, but ... I'm not sure if it really answers the question of why "whump" specifically -- because there are other ways that the same end can be achieved: for example, by having the hero fall in love, by threatening his friends, by putting him in a situation where his skills and expertise are useless. I certainly don't deny that injuring the hero (or heroine) is a great way to put them through their paces and generate audience sympathy for him/her, but it's not by any means unique to that particular technique.
A story about Sheppard caring for his ailing grandfather, or dealing with Rodney's death, or having to use his wits to get himself and a badly injured Teyla out of a labyrinth of deadly puzzles, or in which an Ancient device accidentally turns him into a platypus, probably reveals just as much about the character as a story in which he's injured. It's a tool in the writer's arsenal, and there are practical writerly reasons for using it, but I think the actual reasons for pulling out that tool instead of another one are more emotional than practical. Not to say it can't achieve everything you say it can, because it can (although, like any other writer's tool, whether it DOES achieve its goal(s) depends on how it's used). But why a person would choose to do that rather than, say, achieve the same end (making Sheppard vulnerable, human and off-balance) by having him fall in love with Teyla comes down to a matter of taste and, possibly, mental wiring.
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A story about Sheppard caring for his ailing grandfather, or dealing with Rodney's death, or having to use his wits to get himself and a badly injured Teyla out of a labyrinth of deadly puzzles, or in which an Ancient device accidentally turns him into a platypus, probably reveals just as much about the character as a story in which he's injured. It's a tool in the writer's arsenal, and there are practical writerly reasons for using it, but I think the actual reasons for pulling out that tool instead of another one are more emotional than practical. Not to say it can't achieve everything you say it can, because it can (although, like any other writer's tool, whether it DOES achieve its goal(s) depends on how it's used). But why a person would choose to do that rather than, say, achieve the same end (making Sheppard vulnerable, human and off-balance) by having him fall in love with Teyla comes down to a matter of taste and, possibly, mental wiring.