I think part of what influences the perception of people as to whether a character is "strong" or "weak" is the disparity between what they can do and what they want to do. The more the latter is beyond the former the more likely the character will appear to be "weak," especially the more they bring up their inability to do what they want.
Take's rantuyetmai's example
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Originally Posted by rantuyetmai
Many people liked Yuno from Hidamari Sketch because despite her confidence issue, she is a cute and kind kid.
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In an SoL story, there's not a big gap between what a character would want to do and what they can do. At worst, they're not very good at what they want to do. So, very little complaints about characters being "weak."
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Madoka is Yuno (Urobuchi admited that much), now despite her being cute and kind, people think she's a lesser person because she has confidence issue.
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Madoka is witness to a major life-and-death struggle, she wants to do something to help, but can't do so without major negative consequences to herself. As a result, people accuse her of being "weak." Had she not been shown involved in witch fights, comments regarding her might have been "nice but boring" at worst.
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These fans rapidly forgot that for a human it's enough to: be a good person, take time to develop yourself during the course of your life, live happily, make everyone around you happy, and NO NEED to be a matyr.
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Completely agree.