For one, they prevented an even worse turn of events where 3/4 of the economy would vanish, followed by years of political instability next to faux "
growth", roughly matching the (hyper)inflation.
It's not pretty, fiscal adjustments never are, especially at this scale. The situation was hampered even further by successive criminally negligent governments that sought to promise as little as possible and then only deliver a fraction of what they promised.
It's common to blame the EU for not letting Greece default, as if EU had any power over that. Whether to default or not has always been the Greek sovereign right to decide. If anything EU has been nudging Greece to do just that, but the Greeks refused to do so every time. How do you make that the fault of the EU is beyond me.
That said, Greece might soon be eligible for an actual bailout, with debt write-off and stuff. Primary budget surplus is ahead of creditor targets, a significant green shot in the countries' fiscal health.
https://www.ft.com/content/12cea50a-19db-11e7-bcac-6d03d067f81f
McHrozni