Sadly Musar [Jewish Mediaeval Ethics] is subject to abuse and that tends to give it a bad rap. What to me makes this sad is that Musar gives the best and most compact explanation of what the Torah requires from a person in the most explicit simple and practical way possible.  That is it is like Bava Sali in the sense that it just tells you what Torah is about and leaves out all the Shtick that people like to add or subtract. There are tons of books supposedly about Torah, but most of them are false. They change the Torah in so many subtle ways that ignorant people can scarcely tell the difference.