why are you reading gay fiction?!

Hum. Because I like how gentle the characters are, how stories generally avoid frustrating drama found in het romance, how pretty the girls designs are. I get emotionally invested in the relationship and want the characters to progress it further and be happy.

I'm not reading yuri romance because I'm making some kind of statement. I'm reading because I like it.

You also claim that there isn't enough yuri with a "cute simple and straightforward story" yet the entire yuri genre is comprised of nothing BUT that.

But I was talking about anime, and no, we don't have a lot of that. If anything, we might in fact have an underrepresentation of simple and cute romance stories compared to the fucked up ones (Netsuzou TRap, Citrus, Kuzu no Honkai, and too many token lesbian characters like Kuroko from Railgun).

Personally I find it fairly problematic that whenever someone asks me for yuri anime recommendation, I can name two incomplete stories before drawing a blank and having to think carefully about what to recommend next and whether the lack of romance focus or unhealthy representation might be unpleasant to the person I'm making a recommendation to.

You basically saying you don't like gay fiction that addresses homophobia

It's not about what it addresses, but how it does and how to keep fiction and reality separate. In fact, I like how IFtV addresses homophobia and incest, among others, because those topics are included naturally, as part of the story.

The problems I'm referring to are entirely confined in three parts (I'm not kidding, the story and discussions are always well done everywhere else). The first part is novel chapter 15 / manga chapter 7, which suggests that Rei's behavior would be a justified coping mechanism in the real world (it's not, harassment is not justified no matter how you feel) ; arc 4 (Manaria's arc) due to writing issues with significant plot holes and Rei running in circles again her previous design ; and the previous life sections of arc 6 (Yuu's arc) due to how it forced a lot of drama for characters that weren't part of the story, meaning those chapters lead to zero progress or character development ; not to mention the ridiculous love square that felt like a bad joke, although the isekai world sections of the arc were handled well.

Those elements are in no way dominant in the story. And yet, they contrast with the rest and are highly noticeable (it's no coincidence that I can name those sections on the top of my head without digging into the story again) because it feels like the author wanted to put the story on the side and instead fill a couple of chapters with blog posts discussion on real-world issues. The fact that they are not well integrated with the story, with the novel medium, is what I find problematic - not the topics they address.

I want to recommend anime based on what people will enjoy. If they feel that I'm instead trying to sell them a Twitter thread disguised as anime, they will no longer trust my recommendations (even if they agree with the message, after all I do and I still complain about the writing), and I can't fault them for it. I believe the same is true with the overall anime community's views of the yuri genre in general.