I'm on chapter 9, of over 30. Giles was there early on but I haven't seen him since but, yes, I also thought Buffy went a bit overboard. Haven't run into the canon character yet, but Figg is well-written.

You see unexplained character dislike in fanfiction. Lit Gal will occassionaly tear into Willow more than I'm comfortable with, but her stories tend to be very good.