I'll give them a minor point. Game Ellie didn't get half as much backlash because she was cute and her VA, afaik, didn't get involved in the drama. It all went to Abbey and Druckmann, the really controversial character and the one who wrote it that way.

Instead this Downie made sure to make it all about herself as a person, feeding into every bit of it by making sure we all knew she was reading it and seething. Letting us know she was painfully aware her career was dying more with each episode, and was pretending it was our fault.

She is coming to realize that being an ugly potato head was in fact the only reason she got the role, and now she isn't protected by people's politeness when she was portraying a child and a popular and capable main actor to be the spotlight.