Please tell me you watched the 2004 film. If you enjoyed the settings of the books, you'll love the film's production value and set design. (I so wish we got another movie of books 4-6 and 7-9, that would've been epic. Netflix series doesn't compare, imo.)

As to your points – I do see what you mean, but most of those things never bothered me. Someone else mentioned that ASOUE is a caricature and I agree. They're not meant to be totally realistic. Part of the fun is all the crazy behaviour and dialogue from Mr. Poe, Olaf, Esmee, and all the absurd situations the Baudelaires are put through.

Think of a Leslie Nielsen movie (The Naked Gun movies). You're not supposed to take them seriously, and the fact that they're so absurd is part of the appeal. ASOUE strikes a similar vein, just with a darker undertone, but they are very much comedic at their core.

And as a kid reading these, the tone and style of these books was so unique and different from other children's books, that they were immediately compelling, despite any plot holes or lack of realism.

I think the only issue I had with the series is that when you get to the last book, many of the VFD mysteries and questions are left unanswered. So the series ended for me without that catharsis that you feel when you get a really tight ending to a series (i.e. Deathly Hallows, for example).

It's a bit of a bummer, because up until book 13, I did actually believe that Handler (Snicket) would actually be able to tie up all the loose ends and basically pull off a magician's trick. So to find out that, no, there was no grand ending that would tie up all the mysteries, that he was just leaving a bunch of things ambivalent, after 12 books of build-up, was a bit disappointing.

That being said, I'll always have fond memories of these books. The locations, the characters, the dialogue, the 'steampunk'/Victorian style, the clues and mysteries... there's something really quirky and cozy about these books (cozy might seem like a weird word for ASOUE, but I think you know what I mean... maybe my memory of reading them is cozy, and that affects my perception).

For a more realistic series with clues and mysteries, check out Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, or The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Also: His Dark Materials. Totally different from ASOUE, but what an epic trilogy, and beautifully written. I wouldn't even call them children's books, tbh.

Edit: Btw, the fact that I see an ASOUE thread on /r/books once every few months is very heartwarming. It just goes to show how, despite any criticism of the books, they really have touched something within all of us. These are technically kid's books, yet here we are, years later, still engaging with any thread that mentions them :)