It seems to me that it happens a lot in shows that start off simple and quirky like RWBY did and then starts to show some actual depth and understanding of things like mental illness, like there was still depth there in the early stuff with Blake and Weiss' issues but for the most part it was just let's punch some monsters and bad guys until we got to the back half of volume 3. Like I've seen a ton of terrible hot takes about Yang's issues ranging from she got over her ptsd too easily(she's still not completely over it and maybe never will be), to her PTSD not being realistic because she didn't break down in a heap when confronted by Adam(despite the fact that she is never shown to react that way even in her nightmares she's always portrayed as fighting back even when she's scared). As for the racism stuff yeah the faunus racism plot hasn't really been given the room to develop and stand on its own like a good racism plot should, but I also wouldn't say that there was anything egregious about it either. I've seen a lot of the Adam stans get angry that Rooster Teeth didn't decide to go down the path of the misguided revolutionary with him rather than the abusive, spiteful, seeker of power that we got in the end, but like we have characters like that in the show in Blake(in the past of course) and Ilia, I'm sure them being women has nothing to do with why they don't count.Ding Ding
Honestly, I genuinely despise people who watch this show sometimes.
It also doesn't help that this series has a big overlap with the anime and gaming communities as well since I'm sure a lot of the early watchers probably came from watching Red vs Blue, and RWBY is basically an american made anime. We all know how bad those two can be at times.
Also side note, but it always catches me off guard when I notice that Ilia is almost as tall as Blake, her design just makes me think she's a lot shorter than she actually is for some reason.