A Vote of Thanks to Pharaoh?
No, it's not a crazy thought. Pharaoh certainly was a rasha, whichever Pharaoh the story of the enslavement is about. Denying human rights to the Hebrews (and other groups too) was a crime against humanity. Turning people into serfs without rights was nothing to be proud of.
The advantage of being a leader in one's senior years is the ability to disregard things.

Nonetheless, the Pharaohs gave Judaism a chance to prove itself. It stimulated our ancestors to hope against hope, to have faith when the future seemed black, to yearn for liberation and one day to achieve it. It also symbolised a dimension of history, the encounter with and challenge of a sophisticated civilisation with major cultural achievements to its credit, and the discovery that integration and assimilation have their moral limits for Jews who need to learn that ethics matter as well as edifices.

Old People Should Never Be Born
I knew someone who had a tremendous memory for the folk sayings of pre-war Jewish Eastern Europe. One of the things he used to quote was about the sometimes difficult onset of old age.

"Old people," he said, "should never be born!"

I am not sure of all the implications of the saying. I do know that some people of 20 are already old (a certain professor whom I knew in his youth reminds me that when he was still a teenager I told him, "You speak like an old man"). Some people remain youthful and energetic well into their senior years.

Look at this week's reading. Who were the leaders of the people, God's agents in bringing Israel out of Egypt? Moses aged 80 and Aaron aged 83 (Exodus 7:7). According to Sforno, the Torah deliberately specifies their ages to show that their enthusiasm and energy were equal to the task.

In our own age, a whole series of great spiritual leaders of American and world Jewry were still influential until well into old age - Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and many others.

The advantage of being a leader in one's senior years is the ability to disregard things that are really not so important, and to concentrate on the job at hand.

A Musical Note Makes a Difference
Not only the words of the Torah, but even the musical notes are important. An example is a verse in today's parashah: v'natati otah lachem morashah ani HaShem - "I will give it (the land) to you as a heritage: I am the Lord." (Exodus 6:8)

The musical notes offer another possibility - "I will give it; I the Lord am your heritage." Though this is probably not what the verse meant, it does convey a lesson.
We know there is a God because of tradition.

Whence do we derive our belief in God? The verse suggests an answer. We know there is a God because of tradition.

The Baal Shem Tov asked why we begin the Amidah by calling the Almighty "Our God and God of our fathers". "Our God" is the God we arrive at through our own heart, soul and mind; "God of our fathers" is the God of our heritage. Each phrase amplifies the other.

If He were only "our God", then our belief might be too subjective, so "God of our fathers" gives us objectivity. But if He were only the "God of our fathers", then we might lack a personal relationship with him. Both phrases are necessary.