You may be right about the reason for it, but the fact remains that Bernice stands apart among the teens/young adults in the strip due her utter lack of growth as a person. In real life while superior types have problems learning lessons, it’s pretty rare for one to go through their entire teenage years without maturing or growing at all (emotionally I mean). They’re called the formative years for a reason, after all.
Brad is a completely different person than he was in the strip’s early days. Gunther is more confident and less of an awkward nerd drooling over Luann. Luann herself is slightly better as well (less obsessed with boys and less selfish, as she NEVER would’ve cheered Gunther on in dating other women back when she was stringing him along for the ego boost.) Les isn’t a bully anymore, and yes, even Tiffany has been shown to have a more caring side to her (yes, she occasionally backslides, but she’s still notably nicer than she was in high school.) Even TJ has stopped trying to get Brad in trouble and then leaving him holding the bag. Nearly every character has had some amount of improvement as a person… except Bernice.
Who said every arc? Bernice doesn’t have any arcs about it, as any hint of growth is immediately forgotten by her next appearance as she returns to factory default settings. She hasn’t improved one bit in 35 years of strips, and if anything is even worse.
It’s been like 3 years now; how much longer is Bernice gonna freeload? Though maybe the Degroots don’t realize it because Luann is a much worse freeloader than Bernice.
I can’t believe Luann still insists on writing a romance novel. That thing’s gonna read even worse than My Immortal. Luann describing sexual activity is like a pacifist draft dodger describing small unit infantry tactics.
Bernice doesn’t do character development. Even when she appears to have learned something at the end of the arc, the lessons are forgotten by her next appearance anyway. She always resets back to factory settings.
Oh she’s got a flaw: she’s an absolute doormat when it comes to her brother and niece, and often to the point where it messes up her own life.