The author's trying to criticize modern dating by inverting the tropes, since that way women(men) are a lot easier to emphasize by the white knight team.
It was more venomous in the WN, he never revealed their identities to the families, made the chief put their families in the worst jobs (herb mixing) and tempted them constantly with joining the order in exchange for the taxing labor.
I think he was killing peons until he got a higher piece so there's no need to disfigure new prey, now he has a paladin capable of reporting to the rulers and many peons.
To be fair they never needed it, magic substitutes nutrients so they never felt the need to use salt so no estate or big medieval salt business was ever created.
You shouldn't feed the trolls, people spouting those lines look at things in simple terms, there's no commander or future commander Ilyas only the female being blamed by a male.
At the very least I appreciate the trope break, rival knight with a problematic attitude is not a cartoonish evil fool that hates women for a petty reason.
I remember the novel mentioning she trained and did her duties but rarely talked with other knights, only with the old knights who coddled her, that's also part of why she's disliked.
Bold move but I like it, normally harem manga has every other male character be a rapist or stupid to make the MC shine but having a decent lord is refreshing.
When you go past the usual "evil" descriptions like murder and rape everything blurs, since what's evil for some is good for many. Liam's technically overtaxing his subjects and spends big amounts of money on a whim but since he lifted people out of poverty it's overlooked.
It's about her being condescending to Lalanoa, Sakura's likely worried about a dear friend but Lananoa heard "come here abandoned doggy I'll take care of you since you look to pitiful".