So because of your examples cited, I will respond with my own experiences with the characters you listed. In both cases, the initial story concluded and left me wanting more from both Korra and Rey (season one of "Korra" and "Force Awakens" respectively). It's what happened after those stories that left a sour taste in my mouth.
In the case of Korra, it's mostly because she backtracked. At the end of season one, she had completed some nice character growth from where we started in season 1 (She was the reverse of Aang. She was way too sure of herself and needed some humility and restraint that was taught in some hard lessons. Aang was pretty humble and restrained from the start... but needed to learn that part of growing up means making difficult decisions and self-confidence. Korra started with the idea that being the Avatar was a good thing as it meant she had no consequences, while Aang started with it being a bad thing because it had consequences he wasn't willing to accept. Without spoilers, Korra is brought down to earth and realizes the things she said and did are not always well thought out and caused problems she didn't think of. Working through that helps her reach this. Come season 2, she is downright nasty to everyone and receives very little pushback for it (That said, season 3 and season 4 did show better characterization.).
With Rey, it was mostly how the sequels handled her, and even then her actions weren't too annoying with her, but in the story's settings, it kinda magnified other story problems. I could write a whole issue with "Last Jedi" and "Skywalker" as to where the story problems occurred. But largely Rey's character had little to do with it other than she was never allowed to fail. Consider Luke's role in Empire and Rey's role in Last Jedi. Here Luke is coming off blowing up the Death Star and successful evacuation of Hoth... only to be stuck in a swamp being reluctantly trained by an old fart who is giving tasks he can only overcome in the right mindset... it's not like a muscle he can flex and get better... it's a way of thinking that isn't something he's used to and doesn't understand... he knew he could make the Death Star Shot... he knew he could kill AT-AT's but he couldn't quite grasp the mysterious nature of the force that Yoda was trying to teach. Meanwhile, Rey has to convince the reluctant teacher to teach her an ideology he's all but given up on... especially notable because this teacher is a much older Luke who doesn't teach her the mentality he had to learn between Empire and Return... he believes they made everything worse. In "Skywalker," Rey's story dominates over the entirety of everyone else's story and she lacks any kind of real crisis of character or consciousness. Mostly because "Jedi" really ripped so much of the foundation laid by "Force" up, "Skywalker" fails because the focus has to be on Rey because by now she's the designated hero... but where in Star Wars tradition, the second film of the trilogy needs to highlight the hero's failings, "Jedi" was such a mess, that this wasn't properly told in the story.
To highlight the reverse, I will point to a headstrong female character who doesn't come off as annoying or unlikeable... but I initially thought they were. In Avatar, Katara was this and almost deliberately written as such. She's quite stubborn, bossy, aggressive, vindictive, and is prone to big passionate speeches that drive the lesson of the day home. But what makes her likable is these are deliberately written and addressed over her character arc. She not only makes some pretty stupid decisions, but these decisions cause problems for her in the long run and she is called out for it by characters we like. For example, her controlling nature often clashes with Toph to the point that Toph almost quits the team on multiple occasions (in one case, Aang breaks character and calls her out on refusing to work with Toph to the point that she leaves, by pointing out Toph is needed by the team and while he did make the statement that caused Toph to leave, it was Katara who started the matter causing the gang all their internal squabbles.). Katara does cause trouble... but she's allowed to see the mistake and make up for the very issue she created and learn from her lessons.
On the Star Wars side, we have Ashoka Tano, of Clone Wars fame. I was around when her character was first discussed and she was hated by a lot of older fans when the concept of her was first introduced. She was Anikan's as of yet unmentioned padawan... a concept no one wanted, given that the last time we saw Anikan in the clone wars era, he was slaughtering children. She was introduced in a kids cartoon in a way that felt like she was supposed to be a kid-self insert character to sell toys (these rarely work well for numerous reasons.). And she was in just about every episode of season one, with significant dialog devoted to her over other characters. That said, by season two she was dialed back in appearing in so frequently and her stories were given significant strength in writing that allowed her to grow more likable over time. It's not to say Ashoka was ever a bad character, more that she was something the fans weren't asking for and didn't think could work... and had been overly marketed by people who could see the grander design... In her initial appearance in 2008, she was hated for being in the show, and in most episodes at that... 12 years later, she's the star of 2/3rds of the season seven, with four episodes telling the story of how she survived Order 66 and when announced she would get a live-action appearance in "The Mandolorian" the big fan concern was that a different actress would be playing the character... that is... the fans were concerned that this would change their beloved "Snips" so much it would be unforgivable. No one doubted for a moment Ashoka wouldn't be awesome by the script.
