Thought they were trying to make us care about her as a character to make what they just did more poignant?
Yeah, that is definitely what they were attempting. They just did it in about the worst way possible, poorly executed romance will come off as forced importance to many audiences.
In my opinion the romance aspect itself wasn't that bad for a budding relationship. The whole "Charmingly Befuddled / Gradeschool romance" phase went on waaay too long and got far too much screen time, but I watch anime so I am used to it (Though seriously, I don't need to spend a few minutes on them discussing clothes.). The biggest issue miiight be that they force the level of the relationship.
The relationship shown is like a 1/5, maybe 2/5... It is being treated like a 4/5 maybe 5/5.
I think they wanted a lot more time on this season then they got. It honestly feels like there was supposed to be 1 or 2 more episodes intended.
Edit: DO NOT get me wrong. You can do a quick romance. What they were doing was not a quick romance, at least to me, and needed more time to develop.
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And this isn't even getting into the fact that this season is... So far... About Ashi.
At least she feels like the main character, she is the one who had to grow and had to actually go down a road of recovery. Jack did too but it took a single bit of meditation.
Mind you these aren't criticisms these are just observations that makes Ashi a particularly good target for a hatedom. New annoying character swings down, hogs all the screen time, and then becomes the One True Love of our protagonist in spite of their tepid relationship and long line of pairings?