It's like DC just heaped tragedy onto the character to make him work.
That's a very apt way of putting it. I hate the way it was just so convenient that Tim was eventually orphaned, so that Bruce could eventually adopt him. Somehow it makes the relationship he has with Bruce even worse, in that it's as though being orphaned was unavoidable and Batman's there just waiting for Tim to be dependent on him as a father too, and not just as a friend/mentor/boss.