I was spanked as a child and am not okay, but to be fair, the childhood friends I keep up with were not spanked as children and also are not okay. Clearly we are in need of a third option.
I think the problem isn't that spanking is bad, I think the problem is that some parents just skip every step that leads to that being the only remaining alternative. The problem is that learning those strategies is not easy, parents don't educate themselves on proper parenting.