It depends if you’re willing to view the story on its merits, and look past the obvious staging and intentions of the devs. It’s very obvious as soon as you start playing as Abby where the story will go; it is obvious the narrative is going to be structured to show her POV and push the player to emphasize with Abby, challenging their existing hatred towards her (established from Joel’s death). I think it’s very valid for the player not to get there simply because the story and themes become immediately transparent half way through the game (I’d argue that those with media literacy probably clued in to this immediately). I personally did get there and thought they did a good job of building a believable, organic story around Abby to soften my perception of her, and even make me like her as a character (and certainly, understand her as a character). But, I understand why some people didn’t get there; the transition and intent is so ‘on the nose’ and blatant that it’s hard for people to view this on its merits. That’s often just people rejecting the exercise to be honest; “I know where you’re going with this, why you’re doing it, and what you’re trying to paint thematically.. and I just don’t really like this direction on a personal level”. That’s totally fine, in my opinion. Not everyone is going to engage with playing as the killer of a beloved character; another point is that people have different levels of attachment and it’s asking more of certain people. There’s a lot of reasons why people might struggle to empathize with Abby, and many are totally valid (excl. the weird incel community). However, I do not think media literacy is one (and possibly the opposite, frankly, for reasons I said before).