that literally Is what they're lamenting and they're not even quiet about it considering how many people were unironically complaining that they couldn't find a moral justification for hating mavuika and capitano's narrative chemistry or a reason to call them problematic (same goes for mualani and kinich to an extent).

xilonen, kinich, and mualani as characters were written to uphold the nation's core theme of collective child-rearing, hence why most of the cast play supportive roles to kachina and olorun throughout both AQs (i haven't played the latest one yet so i can't speak on it), and the fact that that leaves little room for romance fodder is seen as a failing. mavuika objectively has the most solidly executed archon story so far in terms of direct social resonance, but it doesn't sell to people who aren't reading the text for that purpose. her relationship with capitano also can't be as easily used to flatten her core purpose as an archon (although people will definitely try, just as they did with zhongli, ei, and furina).

natlan Doesn't have viable ships when people are legit allergic to anything that isn't Slop, so there's no real surprise to be found when in 4 years there have been maybe 3 good popular ships at best.