I think the problem is that LKH wrote herself into a lot of corners and realized that when the shoe didn't fit there wasn't a way to back gracefully out of it. Like having to deal with religion and create a whole mythos for it, which I don't think was something she was up to even pre-downhill turn. Like if she had continued to focus on the detective part of it there wouldn't be an issue, but considering she powers up more frequently than a magical girl in an anime she made it more relevant. There's also the fact that the author obviously has a lot of condescension for religion and she can't even make her OC believably Episcopalian anymore or whatever she had landed on previously. Like I think she could have folded the power of belief into her system of magic if she had been more careful about it, but she just kind of shoe horned it in without even really considering it.

There is frankly a lot of cool stuff she could have done, but well... here we are, lol.

Also I kind of always got the feeling that while vampires were newly legal the public consciousness of them was also kind of fresh. A lot of people rightly mention that there is a lot of consideration to be taken regarding so many various aspects of the world being changed by the existence of these creatures, but I think LKH forgot the part of the back story somewhere along the way where they weren't in the public consciousness until recently and only after being legal did some of these facts, some more disturbing than others, come to light; however, I think that would be too much like Charlaine Harris for her to admit to it now so she will probably continue to be clueless about it. Especially too if you consider where the books started and how the internet was only just starting to be a thing or whatever.

Ugh, the more I think about it the more of a mess it is and the more frustrating it all becomes.