Also, Penelo gets flak because her motivations are completely predicated on protecting other people with little concern to her own hopes and dreams. It's fine to want to look out for others, namely reckless ass Vaan and the street rat brigade but a whole personality built around that? Problematic. They try to fix this in Revenant Wings by making Penelo a sky pirate in her own right along with some plot.
Fran falls into a similar trope but at least she can claim Chewie status in a game ripping off Star Wars to such degrees it's disgusting.