Seven Deadly Sins anime: weird in an unfunny way

I was browsing through Netflix and noticed the following:

And I was like. . . Netflix is doing original anime?

It turns out that Netflix is just licensing and dubbing certain anime now. I like me some anime, so even though I'd never heard of this series, I decided to give it a shot. To this day, I've never looked up its history, so my knowledge is limited to the few dubbed episodes I watched before deciding it wasn't for me. I gathered that the story is set in generic anime fantasy Europe/Britain, where a squad of super powerful knights (that were also government officials?) called "The Seven Deadly Sins" plotted to take over the kingdom, and were then defeated by other super powerful "Holy Knights".

The story starts when a princess with a breathy voice (at least in the dub) stumbles into the main character's bar (the short blond guy on the banner above). Holy Knights are chasing her because they suspect that she's one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it turns out that she's not. In fact, the short blond guy is actually Meliodas, The Dragon's Sin of Wrath and former captain of The Seven Deadly Sins. There's also this talking pig thing, a giant flying/travelling? turtle of some kind, and this weird Holy Knight who seems to have some backstory with both Meliodas and the princess with the breathy voice.

As I said earlier, I only watched a few episodes of this before calling it quits. The story line obviously didn't grab me as I have trouble recalling basic details, the female lead's voice grated on my nerves, and I was put off by the weird interactions between the female and male leads.

Meliodas somehow manages to be oddly sexless and a complete pervert. He determines that Princess Elizabeth is indeed a girl by squeezing her breast as she lies unconscious. This (random, "comedic" breast squeezing) becomes a running gag in the first few episodes. Meliodas grabs her breast during any random scene, including fights and chases that should be all about building tension. Meliodas also dresses Elizabeth, who appears to be completely dependent on him, in a tiny miniskirt that she doesn't appear comfortable wearing.

Elizabeth seems confused by Meliodas' "advances" even though the talking pig continues to yell at Meliodas for being a pervert. By the third episode or so, Meliodas steals Elizabeth's panties, which leaves her feeling embarrassed and anxious (the "plot" justifications for Meliodas' actions are too stupid to be worth discussing). I'm not entirely sure what the joke is supposed to be. That Meliodas is a pervert? That Elizabeth is too shy/confused/naive to protest? That this "funny" boob-grabbing all tend to happen during fights and chases?

The strangest thing is that despite all the panty-stealing and boob-squeezing, I never got the feeling that Meliodas is actually romantically interested in Elizabeth? I finish that sentence with a question mark because I genuinely do not know I was even supposed to think that Meliodas has romantic interest in the princess. The episodes were making a joke of his perversions, but the joke seemed to hinge on the fact that the supposedly serious and respected Captain Meliodas likes to steal panties, etc. Which implies that such behavior is unacceptable in-universe, but then why does Meliodas face no consequences for the behavior? Also, what does he like about Elizabeth besides the large breasts and wide hips?

Leaving the "romance" angle aside, why is Melodias going a quest to reunite the Seven Deadly Sins? Why does he want to fight the Holy Knights? I honestly don't have the foggiest idea. I might've been able to overlook the slap-stick pervert jokes if any of these characters behaved like anything resembling human beings.

Granted, I didn't finish the season, so maybe there's an upcoming arc where Meliodas gets his comeuppance for sexually harassing Elizabeth. But I doubt this very much. The entire dynamic seemed to be a joke. A joke that didn't land because it had no regard for pacing, worldbuilding, or characterization.

A part of me suspects that I'm missing some context about genre here. I've watched/followed Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist, so I'm hardly an expert on anime. Perhaps there's a thriving genre of anime/manga where celibate heroes who don't verbally express any interest in romance go around acting like perverts in some weird kind of juxtaposition? Not that it would make like this series if that was the case, but then I'd at least be a little less confused.