I have always questioned it because, at times the character quirks in this game seem to be too much. Like, Woody getting a free ax and Willow a free lighter. Instead of adding variety to their gameplay, it removes an aspect of the game players normally need to account for. Even on a small level I find that weakens the total experience, because now crafting axes or torches doesn't matter so much.
Wendy has always been my main character because of her personality and age, and I have generally found that Abigail is simply the bomb. She can slaughter hordes of most basic mobs, even in broad daylight, and at night she has saved me from herds of entire Beefalo I accidentally provoked. I actually resent it since, Abigail also removes an aspect of the game; singular combat. You end up depending on her, and while it makes it interesting when she gets banished and you have to wait for awhile; in general, it seems like Wendy's damage reduction is seriously not enough to justify Abigail. Wendy is meant for support, but other then her mild sanity resistance she really isn't support. She's just the living sister of the mega hyper tank character that happens to be dead. I would welcome a 25-50% damage nerf for either Wendy or Abigail during the day to encourage teamwork between them.
On a side note, how do updates work in this game. Because I have seen posts on this site mentioning updates, but I've not seen them show up in the live game on Steam. My gesture wheel mod even has the slots for the sit and squat emotes, but in my game they don't seem to exist.