The problem is you had a lot of the media (and leftists) making demands, accusations, and doing a lot of virtue signaling... sort of acting like this is the first time a professional athlete had been detained for breaking a law in another country. That's the wild thing a lot of people don't realize: this happens almost every year.
It seemed because she was a female, AND playing for the WNBA (which the media is trying SO hard to build up), AND queer... that this became more important than if it was someone else. You had people saying "if this was a man.." or "if this was Lebron".. "if she was straight ".. almost like who she was more deserving to be set free and we should all be trying harder.
I think that sparked a lot of the "patriotic" side to take pause, especially with her past comments on the US.
I do agree, I think.. like always.. the loudest on both sides turned this into a bigger debacle than it already was.