She's the protagonist, all the show is about her. I suspect it's intentionally a divisive character, to form a small but hard fanbase at the cost of losing the rest. Demagogues follow the same formula, it's kinda interesting to see it applied on a TV show.
So much moral inconsistency
?
Burnham is a terrible officer, but also always trying to talk up Starfleet as if she isn't constantly acting like Starfleet doesn't know what the fuck it's doing.