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I think a poorly constructed character is difficult to like unless it's some kind of guilty pleasure. You brought up ChickLit. It's the same idea I suppose for other genres and subgenres. Sometimes we as readers delight in cliches, expectations, and shallowness. I mean, look at what happened to television with reality TV.
I tend to have a lot of ambivalence towards underdeveloped or poorly constructed characters, and so if they die or some other bad thing happens, it's a challenge to feel sympathy. Or I won't care much if they are victorious or something good happens. This can be a problem.
But sometimes you just want a plot-driven novel. You want action, excitement, and stuff to happen. However, if you can write something that does all of these things and you develop compelling characters, then it's much better than the poorly drawn.
This question reminds me of the timeless Madame Bovary problem. Can we get over what we dislike about her?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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