Taylor is literally being an idiot teenager... who is a MINOR, and refuses to cooperate with literally anyone who is actually trying to help her.
I'm sorry, but are you actually suggesting that because someone is a minor, they are obligated to cooperate with a group that is quite literally attempting to force her into labor for them while protecting parties who attempted to murder said minor?
And that a minor who refuses to cooperate with said organization is 'being irrational' and 'just as wrongheaded' as the group attempting to coerce her into laboring for them while protecting the ones who tried to kill her?
That's pretty fucked up.
As to Armstrong being a good, experienced adult who knows what he's doing...no.
See, here's what Armstrong would be doing if getting Taylor to socialize and find a better head-space was an actual priority.
1. He'd tell the wards to fuck off and stop pestering Taylor. He wouldn't forbid them to speak to her, but he'd tell them to stop pushing and let her come to them. He'd tell the protectorate to fuck off and stop pestering Taylor, same general trend. This part he's managed, but he's so far failed at the next part.
Because the next part of step one is that when and if a Ward or Protectorate or etc. do actually get an idea to pressure the kid, he'd drag them across the carpet and publicly lay them out. Which both tells people 'no I'm serious, don't do that shit' and also means that the kid he's trying to build trust with can actually see him making good on that.
So far his reaction to the pressure has been, when Taylor isn't in the room, mild approval and telling them 'this didn't work, but keep pushing and try something different'.
2. He'd explain to Taylor that Parahumans typically have issues if they can't meaningfully express their powers, then he'd
show her the research on that subject because his organization has zero clout as far as trust with the girl. And then he'd work with her to set up some sort of activity where she can do something outside of power testing.
What he's actually done is essentially let this one fester, presumably because he figures eventually she'll get so pent up she'll have to go in for testing or pop.
3. He'd sit the girl down and tell her that he's genuinely worried at her social isolation. He'd then immediately agree with her that it's utterly insane to expect her to begin building friendships with members of an organization that has so fundamentally failed to earn any trust from her, and instead ask that she find some sort of after school activity or club or class that isn't associated with the PRT, and join that. And he'd let her pick it, to avoid giving any goddamn impression that they were trying to sneak a Ward contact in that way.
What he's actually done is spew a few platitudes and then deliberately try and smash her into the Ward team, and tacitly support efforts by the Wards to harass her.
What a reasonable, intelligent, experienced man who is trying to get a troubled teen into a better place, and head off an imminent PR disaster, and hopefully get a useful Parahuman onside, would not do is...let the situation progress as it has in this story.
So is he lying about giving a damn? Or is he just incompetent? Either way, not a shining example.
He wouldn't necessarily do all this himself, personally, btw. But he's the goddamn director, he has staff for this sort of thing.
Taylor isn't cooperating with the PRT. And she's absolutely correct not to, because nothing the PRT has done,
nothing, actually suggests they have any interest in her best interest. At all.
Or if they do, then their actions suggest they're so spectacularly incompetent that they couldn't be trusted to run a lemonade stand.
I get that some people have confused an irrational dislike for Hebert to be 'recognizing her many flaws'. But her behavior in this story, given the behaviors of those around her, are actually pretty reasonable. With the exception of her private hero time, which is typically idiotic Hebert.
But even that is also an example of the PRT incompetence because for fucks sake did they really not think a young parahuman who's cooped up and avoiding open power use wasn't going to do something stupid? Did they actually think that said dumb kid was more likely to fall in line than try and go around their obstructionist bullshit? Are they that moronic?
