Sick of this toxic, creepy af dynamic

Has anyone else noticed that in the common naive x manipulative dynamic, the “cuteness” of the character is used as a distraction from the reality of how problematic the manipulative character is? Manipulators are often considered cowards who don’t have the courage to actually shoot their shot, but that’s not it at all. This type of character does not acknowledge or respect the autonomy of their love interest.
They lie to, manipulate, gaslight, harm, and isolate their love interest rather than directly confess their feelings or ask them out because they don’t care about their opinion or emotions. Kiel has no interest in forming a genuine relationship. He only cares about facilitating Asha’s cooperation in providing him the personal gratification he wants. If Asha said no for any reason, it would be irrelevant to Kiel who would continue with trying to force the relationship.
They don’t ask because they don’t actually care about the answer, he knows that forcing a relationship on an unwilling person will be problematic and cause Asha and others to have animosity towards him, which he does not want to deal with.
It’s even worse in this case because of the age gap, power balance, and very obvious grooming. Even if they were both kids at the time, Kiel was several years older, so the imbalance is real. It’s also very clear that Kiel lied about rules and the norms of social interactions to get Asha closer to him.
I’m just very sick of seeing horrible stuff like this romanticized.