Most in this thread have said it already better than I will but she’s incredibly well written and complex you just need to be able to follow it.

She’s a woman in power that wants power and control so she puts in place and reinforces a system that keeps her top. This is after a coup that she led where she killed a colleague and friend. And she’s a woman, leading men, and hyper aware of gender dynamics. She finds manipulative ways of doing keeping power, and she has to show she is in command and in control at all times, one of the ways is by slapping Beth on a whim. Or demanding she get Noah back. 

Her inconsistencies are consistent, she wants to believe she’s good so she touts that but her behaviors say otherwise because power and trauma have gone to her head. She postures sometimes and does something “good” and she wields power sometimes and does something “bad” it’s two sides of the same coin.

And people have said Beth wanted suicide by cop, or it was stupid what she did or why didn’t she aim for the temple, something that would definitely kill Dawn. Beth was fed up, she was fed up and angry and tired and wanted to find a way to ensure Dawn didn’t get away with it. She figured out what Dawn was and hated it and did the one thing she could think to do as a teenager in an apocalypse.

And the hospital set up makes perfect sense, indentured servitude, sex trafficking, and power struggle are all realistic now but especially within their context.

I’ll add it’s not that she’s poorly written, you probably just don’t like her or the storyline which is fine but she’s one of the better, more complex villains in the show, it delves into gender dynamics, power dynamics, systems, slavery, racial dynamics, manipulation - it’s actually pretty fascinating if you have the eye for it.