@RubyG8396 it's fine, I like long rants, especially when they are nicely articulated like this yours.
I must say I agree with 90% of what you just said, and I'll try to answer your points one by one.
First, I hate isekais too. I think it's an overused stale format that was interesting at first but has been boring for the most part in the last years. Especially since most authors don't even make the effort to create their own story : I don't know exactly how many time I've read "I'm a Japanese girl that got reincarnated as a vilainess of my favorite otome game" but the answer is probably "too many times". At this point the only reason I keep reading isekais is because they make up for more than half of the new mangas that are released, and if you refuse to read them then you're left with almost nothing. It's just sad imo how you can't even find a normal fantasy manga anymore, it has to be an isekai. And I think you're spot on with the reason why so many authors are writing isekais : it's an easy way to make a relatable character in a fantasy setting. The character knows about our modern customs, he knows about Japan, but you can still write a fantasy story. Want to write about a child? It's fine, it's actually an adult in a child body so they can have some complex thinking, the plot doesn't have to be boring.
But what I meant is that, at the very least, I prefer a story where the isekai is actually exploited rather than one where the only reason the author is making it an isekai is to add an isekai tag. I have tons of example where I'm just wondering "was the isekai bit necessary?". It's basically like with the 100 days format thing : I hate that it became a gimmick, but I hate even more when authors don't stick to the format. Because then it just becomes clickbait, the authors just do it because they want to ride on the trend but don't actually stick to it.
I also agree that Lady Baby was a good plot because it pushed the isekai a bit more and gave her a mystery to solve. And I 100% agree that the pacing has been terrible recently, it almost became a slice of life at this point. Every single chapter we're reminded of the same mysteries, but every chapter we don't actually make any progress on said mysteries. And I feel like I've read the "this adult is actually evil, I know because of my past life, I'll roast her in front of all the other ladies" a hundred times by now, even though it didn't happen that often. It just goes to show how I really feel like the author doesn't know how to make his story progress at all. And the recent chapters have just been nothing but adults and kids fawning about Lippe, which was super cute at first, but is just getting ridiculous by now. As most people already said in the comments, I'm also dying to get a timeskip. Or any kind of progress at all really, I came for the interesting mystery plot, not to see 100 chapters of adults doting on a kid. Adults doting on her should be a plus because it can be a cute extra, but it shouldn't become the main focus of the story. It's at the point where I don't even remember most of the major events that happened before (like the ether thingy with the whale is just super vague in my memory) just because it's flooded by the slice of life.
The 10% where I disagree is that I don't actually dislike Lippe's character. I don't even dislike her acting haughty. I don't think it's that much of a problem when she's doing it with kids because, well, she's an adult. We all do that with children, acting like they are absolutely stupid and saying "oooh how cute" to the silliest things they do. We're condescending to children because they are children, it's not that annoying imho. As for how she acts with the other adults, I agree that she's acting super condescending which isn't a good trait, but I don't necessarily dislike a character like that. I agree that she's definitely way smarter than your average adult in this world, and she's taking advantage of this by picking up on the dumber people around her. But she's mostly doing it for business reasons (like in this case) or on straight up evil characters. She's trying to gain connections and establish her power, so she's being manipulative. It hasn't reached a point where I find her character annoying, but I agree that building this kind of manipulative characters is treading on a very thin line. But so far the author has made her character likable imo. I think the whole "it's awkward" thing comes more from the fact that the author overused and milked the premise of the story than from the character itself.
So as a conclusion I'd say that I don't think we fundamentally disagree. I dunno if I answered to everything but I tried my best lmao. My view on this manhwa is that even though I tend to dislike how the isekai thing became such a massive trend, I like that the author actually gave a meaning to the isekai. The isekai part of the plot makes sense, it's not just here for the sake of adding an isekai tag to the manga and to ride on the trend. And I appreciate that he's sticking to it and keeping Lippe's character as an adult in a child body that is using every trick up her sleeve to establish connections and save her family's future. What I dislike though, like most people in this comment section apparently, is how the author milked the "slice of life of adults fawning over Lippe" to the point that it became 90% of the plot, and that we're not making progress at all. I feel like I've made more progress in 30 chapters of most manhwas than in the almost 90 chapters of this manhwa. The pacing is objectively terrible, the author keeps teasing this huge mystery of "who killed my family" to keep us entertained but never actually makes progress with it. It's annoying, and it's starting to spoil the whole manhwa, even though the premise was interesting at first.
