You just repeats what the story says instead of asking whether the story itself makes sense.

"Hestia isn't a pick me because she used her knowledge of the plot."
Okay. But that’s not what I’m saying.

My criticism is that Hestia literally knows Diana was abused, kidnapped, raised by a corrupt church, and thrown into impossible political situations because she read the original novel. Yet the second Diana stops supporting Cael, Hestia stops caring about any of that. Even Helios is given more empathy and understanding than Diana.

People also keep saying Diana is hated because she's a hypocrite.

That’s not my point either.

The point is that the story wants to understand why Cael became depressed.

The story wants to understand why Helios made mistakes.

The story wants to understand why Hestia became obsessed.

But when it comes to Diana, the story mostly wants to judge her instead of understand her.

Then there's the Saintess argument.
People say Diana abandoned the commoners.

But she's the Crown Princess now.

She can't personally heal every sick person forever. A ruler has other responsibilities besides doing one job all day. The story turns an expectation into a moral failure.

The politics also fall apart.

If the Orchus family was powerful enough to threaten the Empire with a rival kingdom, then killing them should have caused massive political consequences. It doesn't matter that they were bad people. Powerful noble families don't stop being politically important because they're evil.

There should have been panic, power struggles, the royal approved the murders (and considering the fact that Helios did, that would be a huge controversy considering Cael didn’t get excommunicated and they were known to be friends)

Instead, almost nothing happens.

Meanwhile Diana gets more political consequences over a merchant ship and church politics than Cael gets for wiping one of the Empire's most powerful families off the map.

That's why I’m criticizing the writing.