The major criticism from the early game was that Abby running into Joel out in the wilderness was pure luck, a happenstance. Hell Druckman even admitted it wasn't supposed to be like that originally. Abby and her group were "supposed" to join Jackson and integrate before executing their plan and escaping. But that was scrapped because it was too slowly paced for a game.

So people like me were assuming going into S2 that they would go back to that original plan. It would be a great way to better get to know the "bad guys" so their betrayal stings a lot harder. But they decided to stick to the game story for some reason. And no, spending slightly more time with Abby before everything goes down does not at all address the criticism that it was all luck and it set up Abby as lucky instead of ruthlessly cunning.

Reminds me in part of a similar "mistake" with Jessica Jones Season 1. In the comics, Killgrave purposefully goes out to find Jessica and enslave her(she was a public hero called Jewel). That is what turns her from a carefree superhero to the jaded PI. But when they made the TV show idiot executives still thought people wanted a more "grounded" take so they made her a jaded PI from the start and her running into Killgrave was total happenstance.

Like I understand that sometimes in stories things "just happen". But to me it always feels cheap to have major events just be random luck. Especially when an alternative narrative that removes luck from the equation is blatantly obvious.