If Allah had created this worldly life as a place of test and hardships are constant, why then would we say that people have the choice to act upon good and bad? Many of our sufferings are caused by fellow mankind. Wouldn’t that mean that it is as if there are people who are “programmed” to be bad?

This is completely unrelated, this life is a test so there is death, disease, sadness, and also people can make bad choices to harm themselves and others, so this life is not a life of reward, the reward is in the hereafter where there is none of this. Where is the programming in any of this for our choices?