I think watchers took it literally. Especially the overdone tropes and the storyline we have seen a million times. If I went into it expecting to watch a "serious" romcom I would leave disappointed but in the same breath the direction the movie was going to take was very clear in the first few minutes and from there it was easy to figure out that it is not going to be as "serious" as one would like it to be.
The exaggeration of the popular tropes and characteristics of the mean girl and her clique, the cool boy, the athletes, and the less popular came off as deliberate, and to me that served as comedic relief rather than actually being bad. I had a lot of "laugh out loud" moments where it was really funny and I liked that the movie carried that same comedic aspect throughout and up until the end as opposed to dropping it mid-movie like most romcoms do. The exaggeration and over-dramatization of these characters and the events that take place IS what makes it funny. It's almost as though the movie was taking a dig at all the worn out highschool romcom tropes.
I really believe that changing your perspective will heavily influence your viewing experience. If you take all the cringy scenes and worn-out concepts and see that they were deliberate and not meant to be taken literally you will have a pleasurable viewing experience.
It was a lighthearted and funny watch. I would recommend it.