I know right? wildlife has been living by that rule since life began, if only humans would live by that rule then surely we'd be the dominant species on the planet by now.
For a long time we did. The relative prosperity of the west is only a fairly recent thing, mostly since ww2. Societies didn't have the surplus to provide the extensive social safety nets that we have now.
Look how it's effected our story telling. Maya is in a bind, and instead of growing as a person and finding her way out of it, the story expects her friends to rescue her. In fact, personal growth as a story motif is used very sparingly.
OK let's assume that DPC didn't want a self growth story, he wanted someone to rescue Maya. DPC could also have another character, MC or Josy, experience a story arc where they grew from an unsure or un caring person to become the person that was capable of helping Maya. But in BaDIK it's assumed that they will be willing or able to help from the beginning.
MC is a kid from an impoverished backround, who logically should be struggling but isn't. All his focus isn't on his problems, but the problems of all the middle class white girl's around him.
I've done a poor job of explaining it here but my point is that this story only seems to make sense to someone that has an expectation of prosperity, and it's only one of the many problems that the story has.