Such a conflicting tale, for I can't bring myself to hate Maple, despite knowing that what she did was truly loathsome.

I know, and I think you do too that she never lied to you about how offering you "meals" weakened her. You found her weak, but even when you said she started acting less like a friend and more like a depraved monster, she never ate you, and she didn't even hurt you even though eating you would have sustained her, I think she loved you and was in the truest sense of the phrase a victim of her circumstances.