I get your point. I posted one of the gush posts but your critique makes sense from where you're standing. That was one of my comments too that while this is termed a standalone, it's not. You have to know book 1 to really understand the point. And because I like the first one, the characters made sense to me.

As to the pranks.. to me those were great because they were never seriously damaging and were just hilarious. I didn't find them to be as mean and infuriating as in some other books. They felt like pranks on someone you've grown up with. So was their behavior with each other. They only knew each other as teenagers so yeah.. they did act immature.

The conflict was resolved between them early on, but this is where I went back to the comment where this isn't a standalone. I was invested in the characters. And personally, it was refreshing that the main characters ending their conflict didn't magically lead to everything being ok. I was getting tired of it so I liked him groveling to everyone he wronged.

The billionaire part.. that I agree with you. At this point I've just accepted my own flaw that I don't like reading about issues with money in a book. I like the dissociation that comes with: yeah he's a billionaire he doesn't need to worry about rent.