Spoiler!
I didn't hate that Joel died, even so early in the game. Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall once said, a character should only be killed when their death would provide more story progression than their continued life, or something along those lines. And...Joel's story didn't have anywhere else to go. He was just...Living. He did bad things, and the consequences finally caught up with him. I didn't find Abby's sex scene with Neil Druckman's self insert character off putting, but I'm biased towards bodies like Abby's. And I LIKED Abby, too. Part because I'm attracted to her, part because I'm a very empathetic person and could understand her as a character. I feel like if this'd been the THIRD game, not the second, there would've been a lot less whining...