Blu,
Perhaps you never experienced this, but eventually the alcoholic progresses to the point where that window of pleasure/euphoria gets incredibly small. You are on this site presumably because your experience with alcohol on the whole has become a negative one. Because this is a progressive disease, you are not giving up the euphoria you experienced when you first started drinking, you are giving up the ever worsening consequences had you continued to drink. Be careful how you perceive your sobriety - this kind of thinking is a very slippery slope imo:
... it seems like we have to kind of let go of having that pleasure/euphoria ever again and settle...
In my experience, sobriety is a gift not a sacrifice.