In my personal opinion the writing has always been sub-par at best. Later seasons (season 4 and onward) made it painfully clear how much of a wasted potential each character was (Blake comes to mind first and I could go on a spergathon on this, but it's another tale for another time). I guess you could argue that RWBY kind of lost its soul when Monty died, but with his death nothing else was gained or lost.
The fandom and the haters being this much on the spectrum is an inevitability. Though in hindsight from what (little) I have seen they don't stand out that much when it comes to the 'tism compared to the fandoms of Avatar, Steven Universe or weebs as a whole.
Just like cancer is a medical fact of life we have to live with, so is shipping to a fandom. However, this is one of the few instances I've seen where the writers, and even the VA's, tease and encourage it. In the case of the writers the ship teasing is a way to compensate for their incompetence. The VAs are just autistic.
Hope I could help.