Being a Slovenian, who had the pleasure of seeing some of the earlier editions, and reading some portions of it in Slovene, known as Slava vojvodine Kranjske, and that the legal history of Inner Austria as Habsburg territories could be characterized as area of my primary interest, I can shed some light on this, as pertaining to these territories, though the nature of the question makes is slightly difficult what one is actually inquiring about.

So, before proceeding, let´s clear up some of the remarks and subquestions in the description.

I assumed that the accused were always victims of circumstances and there was nothing different in them compared to the rest of the population.

Sometimes, although the social standing and existing social relation had significant statistical bearing, and certainly, statstically speaking, certain character traits and other characteristics had notable influence. This hold pretty much across the regions, be it in European or American persecutions.

But I find it impossible to think that all these people were normal Christians. On the other hand, thinking that some of these people were actually worshiping the devil in the medieval environment is a bit weird. Maybe these people were pagan? Or at least "part" pagan?

Well, this is trickier. One has to also know that these were the times of reformation and counter-reformation, and a significant literary output in this time was of religiously polemical nature, and, for example, in Slovene space, protestant writers were quite often engaged in polemical writings against orthodox, or now Catholic, confession, even going so far as calling Catholic liturgy a witchcraft and desecration. So by Pagan, one does not necessarily mean the gods of past days, but polemical characterization of its opposition. Though, perhaps, like with anything, one might be able to find a person here and there believeing in the old gods and worshipping the devil, in a sense, but these are hardly representative cases.

But if we go in the trenches, most accusation were an unfortunate, or in some cases deliberate, convergance of various factors - in which public speculation and polemical enticing certainly played a part at some times, and one has to known that the outburst of cases were either isolated, or sporadic, clustered around a common thread.

From one of my previous answers;

If we are speaking about the vast majority of witchcraft related trials from sixteenth to eighteenth century, and I will speak mostly about the trials in Habsburg monarchy, more precisely for region of Carniola, and their regional courts. First tangible legal development specifying witchcraft was in 1532, when Criminal code of Charles V - Constitutio criminalis Carolina, then Holy Roman Emperor, stated in article 44:

When someone offers to impart sorcery to other people, or threatens to bewitch someone and such befalls the threatened person, and the aforesaid person otherwise has associated with men or women sorcerers, or has employed suspicious things, gestures, words, and signs such as characterize sorcery, and when, further, the said person has a bad reputation of similar sort, then that constitutes a legally sufficient indication of sorcery and is adequate basis upon which to examination under torture. ( CCC, 44 )

With further clarification in article 109 that punishment with death was standard if the practice caused harm, be it bodily or material.

In the regions mentioned above, we have records of 265 persons burned, for 131 verdict is unknown ( though most would be killed ), 54 either minor punishment or cleared of guilt, 41 died while awaiting trial and 6 escaped, with further classification, 341 of the accused were female, 62 men, 94 unknown, cases with children were rare. Further, most of them would be from lower societal spheres, like farmers, winemakers, beggars, from the nobles or inhabitants of cities, cases are rare.

Another important distinction has to be made that heresy and witchcraft are two quite separate, the former being rather an error in an important article of faith, or contrarian to the orthodoxy, if we take a standardly applied terminology, although historically, the judicial usage lost the potency during Reformation due to countless accusations.

So one the question of "Is this the kind of thing that was viewed as witchcraft? If not what else?" - It is hard to give any concrete boundaries or established practices of what consituted such an activity, as the loosely worded CCC above showcases, although this was not a binding document per se, it was nevertheless influential in these sorts of trials. Suspicous activity accompanied, possibly other natural misfortune ( hail, lightning, flood, draught, etc ), with some personal animosity added, and without credible witnesses to exonerate, might get someone in troubles.

I have an interesting case here though, a woman, Katarina Vendelič, pregnant, was sentended to death, but could not be executed while pregnant, was sentenced under a provincial court in Škofja Loka, ger. Bischoflack, but a mining judge, from a nearby town of Železniki, Würz von Würzenstein, claimed that provincial court and their lords had no jurisdiction over her, since she was the wife of a miner.* The case was appealed, went to the higher court, dragged on for a decade, was dismissed, but ended with a lesser charge of blasphemy.

*There is a lot to it, but mining communities were in late medieval and early modern period quite autonomous, and had their own governence to certain extend, and their own judge. ( All simplified, but there is one of the more important legal documents on this Jeseniški ali Ortenburški rudarski red - A priviliege issued by then territorial lords, Counts of Ortenburg. )

Author of the The Glory, J.V. Valvasor, was a known sceptic, and the book likewise shows significant doubt, disbelieveing that witches could fly, attributing this to natural reasons, such a herbal intoxication and hallucinations, often criticized judges for naivity and the use of turture, which he found unreliable, and so forth.

Perhaps with a better wording of the question and a more specific request I might be of more help.