I don't understand the Abby hate. Yeah, I hated her at first too, but after you see why she did what she did, she honestly became a more sympathetic character to me than Ellie.
I can only really speak for myself, but what you just said is actually part of the problem I had. The writers seemed intent on destroying Ellie as a character. She basically grew up to become an absolute shithead, lol. By the end of the game she is an irredeemable monster who has lost everything. I am not really sure why anyone who was a fan of Ellie in TLoU1 is happy about how this story turned out...
TLoU1: Ellie says something to Joel along the lines of "Everyone who I have ever known has either left me or died. Everyone except for you."
TLoU2: Joel is killed and everyone else that cared about her hates her guts because of her decisions. She is broken and alone without even the ability to play the fucking guitar, lol.
Why should we like this again? Maybe if she hung herself in an epilogue we should give the game an 11/10 instead? The story is fucked up with an obvious push by the writers to break down Ellie as a character. Even petty shit like Dina one-upping her in different things. First human kill? Ellie shot someone at 12. Dina stabbed someone at 10. Most infected killed on a patrol? Ellie a dozen. Dina 20. My numbers are probably off, but you get the point. The writers just seemed to have it out for this character. Strange shit...
Now as for Abby, I just never really bought into her story. How can you feel sympathetic for a father who was literally the one fighting to kill a 14 year old girl in her sleep for his precious cure? I would have gutted that mother fucker like a pig if he tried to kill my daughter in her sleep.
Then there is this part when you are Abby on that large ship and you find a couple of skeletons who were seemingly shot by arrows and killed in their beds. And she remarks, "Eww, killed in their sleep." Hello, you hypocritical idiot? Your shithead of a father was on the verge of cutting a young girl's brain open in her sleep. Do you not realize this? Are you dense?
Her relationship with Lev comes out of nowhere and didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Lev was ready to let her hang like a piece of meat. I do kind of like Lev, though. But I generally like these "fish out of water" types of characters.
Anyway, I can rant and rave all I want, but at the end of the day this game's story was just unsatisfying for me. Great game in other areas, though. Even the story, as much as I dislike it, is told with a level of technical skill that you just don't see in most other games. They know how to get the best out of their voice actors.
However, can Laura Bailey at least try to alter her voice a bit from game to game? Abby was basically Kait, Helena, Fiona, etc. No difference at all between the characters. She's not bad, but man, it's just getting a little ridiculous hearing her in every game, lol.
Sorry for the nonsensical rant. Take care.