@kuali If it helps, I can vouch for enjoying volume 2 & 3 quite a bit myself. My main enjoyment from this series comes from the absurdly over-the-top comedy moments, there are few series that give me a genuine laugh like this one often does. And those 2 volumes might actually have the most of such moments.
I can understand what a lot of people didn't like about them though, I think it's definitely the case that the author isn't very good at maintaining character consistency. I'd argue vol 4/5 Eleanora is even further diverged from her vol 1 personality than vol 2/3 Yumi was from hers in vol 1 (I'm in the minority of preferring the latter here as Yumi's changes made her funnier while Elle's have made her less funny). And then there's the fact they completely rewrote Alicia for the manga/anime.