the classic defense of every failed product... "trust me, the plumbing was solid." users don't care. they saw a creepy AI face and closed the tab. you're essentially arguing that the titanic had excellent rivets.
Oh god, I just went to the Call Annie landing page and first thing I see is the freaky AI slop avatar...her face is the last thing I'd want to stare at while I stumble through my Japanese study session every day. I'd rather talk to the Duolingo owl I think. The lingle approach of just having my face on the screen is actually kinda clever. Maybe it could recognize by my expression when I'm confused and help me out lol. I can also see how I actually look during the conversation which imo is a big part of communicating.