I don't know if this is worse or not. In the show we never see the process Willow goes through when deciding about bringing Buffy back. It's just like one day she just turns around and kills a little roedeer.
But this. Checking and knowing Buffy is not in the dimension she might have fallen into, but still deciding to go on with what she knows, implicitely, is dark and wrong magic. Enlisting Xander because she knows he'll never tell Spike. Playing both of them, the one for protection the other for her own purposes. Takes nefarious to whole other levels.