Not really, I want to understand how a lot of smart people feel about a conflicting topic. There's no right or wrong in the situation, there's optimal and suboptimal.
>In my opinion having the character in the logo is crucial to the marketing. How do I persuade her that we must do this?
These statements seem to conflict with each other.
Taste is highly subjective, but your designer is a specialist in visual communication and literally sees the world in a different way from how you do.