i see your points but just because MLs can be worse doesn’t make her good by comparison.
the way this was written didn’t hint to the idea that maybe she was forced to go to war and it was kill or be killed. the author wrote it in a way that makes it sound like she just wanted to help the emperor conquer land so she decided to go to war and kill a bunch of people (or maybe that’s just how i took it). and usually when a war hero comes back, they’re ridden with guilt, but the FL in this story is rather apathetic and even wanted to kill the ML simply for being a northerner. her reaction and paranoia also makes sense but that just adds to why people dislike her.
but sometimes her cluelessness about being a good person is cute and sometimes it’s irritating
i can’t tell if she’s evil for no reason since i don’t think the author did a good job explaining her reason for going to war, or maybe the author hasn’t even touched on the subject yet, but i’m not gonna give her the benefit of the doubt just because some stories have even worse ML. i’m still hopeful to see a good reason for why she is the way she is, i don’t necessarily want her to change but i hope she can live leisurely one day.
i think another reason people dislike her is because in most stories, the war hero doesn’t usually kill off the main lead’s community. i feel uncomfortable cause he’s obviously developing feelings and she’s a huge reason why his family’s dead, i’d say the emperor is the biggest reason though. let’s all agree that he’s human trash.