What I find funny is that I am 99% certain that The Point of Celia right now is to showcase how much we all accept rampant violence in our hobby, to the point where murder is our first choice for solving problems in-game, and how horrific that would look to an outsider with no gaming experience. And in response, everyone hates her because she doesn't accept rampant violence, and their first choice for dealing with her is murder.
I'm not sure which side Rich is going to come out on, but consider the things Celia opposes:
She opposes violence and murder
She opposes greed and theft
The party doesn't have any problem with any of that, but she does. Most people have problems with that. The people that don't have problems with that are goblins, liches, assassins....and adventurers.
Much of the audience hates her for the same reasons that they'd hate someone in the gaming group who acted like her -- she makes a better NPC on the sidelines than she does a PC in the mix of the action. That's fair enough, but OotS is first and foremost a narrative, not first and foremost a gaming group -- in a story, her annoyance can serve a greater purpose than antagonist/foil.
For the record, I was kind of disappointed in Miko, too. But there was a clear point at which she kind of earned her fall (when her suspicion blinded her compassion). Celia hasn't had a point like that yet. All she's done is be kind of annoying to Haley by basically protecting peace and advocating restraint. She's justified, however obnoxious this is to someone whose like is basically stealing and killing (however well-sanctioned). Miko's mania wasn't nearly as defensible as Celia's is.
In a game, she'd be annoying. In a story, she's a perfect example of what a good writer does -- throwing his favorite characters into situations where their ideals are thrown into question.
