「～ても／でも仕方がない」 Two different meanings?

Question

I know that generally the construction ～ても／でも仕方がない essentially means the same as ～ても意味がない／～ても無駄だ, as seen in the following examples:

いちいち細かいことで怒ってもしかたがない。
"There's no point in getting angry over every single thing."
今日中に結論はでないだろうし、これ以上続けてもしかたあるまい。
"We probably won't reach a conclusion by the end of the day so there's no point in continuing for now."
(source: nihon5-bunka)

But then there are example sentences listed that don't make a lot of sense applying ～ても意味がない／無駄だ:

全然勉強していないんだから、試験に落ちたってしかたがないよ。
Since I haven't studied, it wouldn't surprise me if I failed the exam.
必要なものなので、値段が少し高くてもしかたがありません。
I need this so even if the price is a little high I'll get it (can't help it, I need it after all).

For those two examples I'd go with an interpretation something along the lines of "there's no helping it, it is what it is". Am I right in my assumption? "There's no point in failing the exam" for the former sentence for example is nonsense after all.

The reason I'm asking this is because I've come across following sentence:

それなのに、マーテルがこの世界を愛していたことも痛いほど伝わってきました
ミトスのように、世界を恨んでも仕方がないと思うのに・・・

The person saying this is reflecting back on a person called Martel who is the sister of Mitos and continued unconditionally loving the world despite being hated by many and ultimately ended up being killed. Mitos however is still holding a grudge against the world and is actively trying to destroy it.

The way I would have interpreted the sentence would be something akin to "I wouldn't be surprised if Martel hated the world herself, just like Mitos does (yet she loved it instead)." I don't see how the application of ～ても意味がない／無駄だ would work in this context.

～て恨んでも仕方がない within a different context:

コロナを恨んでも仕方がないので、この状況を乗りこなすため、、一体どうしたらいいのか、いろいろ考えました。
I've been doing a lot of thinking on what we could do to overcome the current situation; holding a grudge against the coronavirus isn't going to get us anywhere after all."

So ～恨んでも仕方がない would have two different meanings then, depending on context: "There's no point in hating..." and "I wouldn't be surprised if... hated..."

Another example:

～との批判を受けても仕方がない
deserve criticism for
どんな罰を受けても仕方がない立場である
deserve any punishment
(source: eow.alc.co.jp)

(Now I can't vouch for the legitimacy of either websites but I'll just assume that the given info is correct, I'm sure you guys will correct me if they aren't).

Am I correct with the given translations (especially the 世界を恨んでも仕方がない one) and my assumption that this construction could essentially be divided into two meanings, one with ～ても意味がない／無駄だ and one with "it is what it is, can't help it?" I find it interesting that this distinction doesn't seem to be discussed anywhere and only the ～ても意味がない／無駄だ interpretation is ever discussed, even though these two concepts seem very different to me.

Any input?

EDIT: Please see my answer below for a new question. I didn't want to create a new thread on the same subject matter, so I figured I'd reuse this one instead. I hope that's alright.

Answer 1

You are correct. ～ても仕方(が)ない means two different things:

• there is no point in doing ～; doing ～ is meaningless
• one cannot help doing ～; doing ～ is undesirable but unavoidable

As always, the correct interpretation depends on the context. For example:

• もう間に合わない。だから走っても仕方がない。
  I can't make it in time anymore. So there's no point in running.
• ここで走るのは禁止されているが、遅れるとクビになる。だから走っても仕方がない。
  I know it's forbidden to run here, but if I'm late, I'll be fired. So I have no choice but to run.

^{(By the way, only the latter is interchangeable with 走るのは仕方がない.)}

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Now your problem:

それなのに、マーテルがこの世界を愛していたことも痛いほど伝わってきました。ミトスのように、世界を恨んでも仕方がないと思うのに…。

This is indeed ambiguous, and the correct interpretation of the second sentence depends on the context. At first sight, my intuition was "There is no point in hating the world like Mitos does", because the previous sentence was about how one should love the world. However, after reading your explanation, I noticed "She (=Martel) might well hate the world like Mitos does" is a perfectly valid interpretation, too.