I don't get where people are saying he is pushing an agenda. Every character in the game feels like you could flip their gender, background, skin color and nothing would change in the story. You could make Dina a guy and Ellie straight and it would not really do anything to change the characters motivations in this game. There are a lot of people who didn't realize Lev was trans in the game.
Your whole talk about forcing their opinions through the game is so weird. The game is not preachy about that stuff it is just background for the characters. They don't push an agenda at all unless you think just having these characters in the game is wrong. It shouldn't be political to include a gay character or trans. Its real life. If people can't handle that, then it is on them and not the creators.
Regarding Abby, I feel like you are missing the parallel between her and Ellie. Abby is basically Ellie after she completed her revenge quest, and you can tell she is not full-filled by it. I didn't think I was going to like Abby, but sure enough by the end of the game when the 2 were fighting both times I tried to find a way to not attack either Ellie or Abby. Abby finds redemption by protecting Lev and getting to the Fireflys island.
When this game was announced and it was labeled a revenge game, I just don't understand how people didn't understand that mean Joel was most likely to die. He did a lot of bad stuff before and during TLOU1. You find out that after Joel killed the doctor and a bunch of Fireflys, the group disbanded. There were obviously going repercussions for that. There is still a ton of great Joel and Ellie moments in the game and the game is still very much the story of them.
Ellie is struggling still with survivors guilt between Riley and then with Joel. She thinks being the cure was the only way to give her life meaning. During the game you find out that Joel and Ellie were not on good terms after he told her the truth. Then you see the fight at the barn dance scene and what Ellie said to Joel, made it feel like the last thing she said to him was to bascially leave her alone. Then during the final fight, as Ellie is choking out Abby, it cuts to Joel on the porch quickly, it's then she realized exactly what Joel did the first game. How someone can go to great lengths and do so much harm for the people they love. Then she let's Abby go and it cuts back to the farm with the flash back showing the convo on the porch how she was trying to start to learn to forgive him and she wants to mend the relationship, but Joel dies the next day. It was damn great sequence.
The game would have been boring if it was just Joel and Ellie adventures part 2. It would have made no sense in context of the universe that has been created. I think it is awesome they didn't play it safe or to expectations. There are countless other games doing the safe thing. People should be happy at the AAA level to see these kinds of risks being taken. They knew fully well some people might not gel with the game. The "backlash" would have been way less severe if the leaks didn't happen and people thought Abby was trans and the toxic part of the internet started to run with it.