These are interesting questions.

But I can't tell if your friend's feedback was unclear, or if you just didn't like her feedback.

I don't have to like the main characters, but I want to feel some connection or empathy toward them.

“Too perfect to be in the situation she is in” -it’s really hard to understand what this means.

Can you give some hypothetical analogous situations? Describe a situation different but similar to the one your character is in and tell us how your perfect character would react and we’ll let you know what you think.