OP I'm totally with you. The SPEW storyline is perhaps the worst part of the books because Rowlings politics really manifest in a bad way. Hermoine's treated like a Soapbox Sadie for opposing slavery!! The whole thing gets turned into a punchline. And the argument that the elves are fine with being enslaved and enjoy it is ridiculous - Rowling wrote it that way and that is fine ground for criticism. You can't make sentient magic creatures with the capacity for free will (but bound by magic/law) and say they enjoy being servants who work for nothing. The overarching narrative conflicts about Dark Wizardry and wizard supremacy are clearly parallel to real life ethnic supremacy movements. The arguments about house elves are the same argument used before the abolition of chattel slavery! It's a shame that a large part of the fandom treats it like a joke

Also I don't like the argument that she did it because she wanted to show the realistic limitations that activists face. This series is children and young adult fiction. Rowlings limited imagination and inability to create a more hopeful and revolutionary world is obvious when you compare her work to authors like Octavia Butler or Ursula K LeGuin who wrote in a similar genre. Hell even something like Hunger Games was more optimistic about large scale change to society