Bear in mind as well that in-universe, the AIbino is designed to be intimidating and to induce that feeling of unease. They are meant to tap into that part of the brain that makes humans go "oh shit" in that really tiny voice.
That the AIbino produces a near similar reaction on the forum should be a testament that Jeph has designed a quite good character.
As for this arc, I liked it, but not for the reason you think. I liked it because it was a callback to some of the darker stories in QC history; the Talk, Marten and Dora's breakup, Faye's drinking and hospitalisation. I think QC needs these darker stories once in a while, just to counter some of the, shall we say, sillier stories or the ones that are just a little too romantic. To be the salt that cuts the sugar, so to speak.
Look, at the end of the day, Jeph has tried to tell a different kind of story, and it hasn't quite worked out in some aspects. But he has tried. He's tried to do something different, a kind of story we haven't seen before. And that should be celebrated, because we're in the 14th year of Questionable Content, we're just a few weeks away from the 3500th comic. In terms of duration and volume of content, that's huge. Other comics, it could have been very easy to fall into a tired, boring rut. As it is, we got something different, there's someone trying new things to keep his job fresh.
So maybe, just maybe, people shouldn't be crapping over this arc like they have over the last couple of weeks.
Also, every time I read spotted pucculent, I think of some sort of vegetable like a courgette.