That's good to hear. I haven't seen any of those polls so anything about popular opinion is news to me. I get why Nodoka is controversial too. She's definitely earned it.
Part of the reason I said that thing about Ayane though was that characters in game don't reciprocate her empathy. Specifically, Ami and Maya who don't seem to give a shit about her. That sort of frustrates me.
What empathy are you referring to exactly? Ayane's rather bad at understanding others or even thinking of things from another's point of view. For example, she used to think of Sensei as "lawful good":
Ami actually treated Ayane better than she deserved, imo. Letting Ayane sleep on her:
Checking up on Ayane when she's not feeling well:
And basically being there for her since she was 11:
Maya on the other hand is kind of true. She only really cares about two people besides herself, Ami and Sensei, and she's betrayed Ami's trust for years. Maya doesn't have much reason to care about Ayane, unless food or Sensei is involved, though. She seems to like Sana more, tbh.