I still don't think the "bad girl" thing was the problem. If she had a hit nobody would care - the problem is she didn't, so people are gonna complain about it. The other problem was that the music just isn't good, didn't satisfy her fanbase and didn't build new fans.
I don't think it's a coincidence that nearly every black woman singer and rapper is dealing with the same problem. A lot of slick, hyper sexual videos that get a lot of views but very few actual hits. If they all had melodies like SZA we wouldn't be having this convo because they'd have hit records. But they don't, and they're all kind of just...existing. Same with a lot of the black woman rappers. Meanwhile white pop stars are actually releasing SONGS, racking up hits, making better videos, etc. It's night and day and you know what? It's gonna get worse now that labels are gutting "black" music execs.
The genre needs to move beyond the dynamic of the last decade plus where the best songwriters get gobbled up by Beyonce or Rihanna while everyone else recycles weak songs that depend on the video to make it blow up.