You, sir, deserve this follow!

2776861
The best thing about stories that make a good point subtly is that they don't immediately spring to mind when you're trying to think of good examples. Honestly the MLP Canon-verse is a really awesome example thereof. There's tons of messages scattered throughout, some that are overt and a lot more that are covert, and all the more effective for it. Admittedly the one that makes me laugh the hardest is from the Zephyr Breeze episode, mostly because I know people who are almost exactly fucking like that.

2776860

Agreed. Messages and points can be made very effectively through stories as long as making the point is not the whole point of the story.

Fallout Equestria is an excellent example, although in that case, the end message was stupid

The only thing I'd add to the list of "worst offenders" is when an author is trying to make a personal kink the default (or at least highly normal) way of constructing relationships.

Fall of Equestria springs to mind, although I WISH IT WOULDN'T

2776858
Agreed. Messages and points can be made very effectively through stories as long as making the point is not the whole point of the story. My rule of thumb is to hand the book to someone who would miss the message entirely and see if they still enjoy the book. Their answer tells you how good a job the author did. If a reader wanted a hamfisted lecture on the evils of (insert your pet peeve of choice here), then they would be listening to some talking head lecturing on the evils of that thing. In the world of the internet and radio, there's plenty of options.

The only thing I'd add to the list of "worst offenders" is when an author is trying to make a personal kink the default (or at least highly normal) way of constructing relationships. That results in some of the worst world building I've ever seen.

2776854
And again, the most aggregious example are almost always someones pet political or societal peeve. Again, I don't mind a social or political message, if they're done well or even competently.

Its sort of why I don't hate steven universe. Give Ms. Sugar and crew credit they at least tried