I completely agree with you on Bea Smith, she is arguably the most remembered Prisoner by those who have a casual knowledge of the show, and was so over rated.
Don't get me wrong, she had some good storylines and wasn't a bad actress as such, but her character went on a loop which became so sterile and boring. tough, depressed, frustrated, vulnerable... tough, depressed, frustrated, vulnerable...
I wasn't sad when she left and i didn't miss her either. but it would have been good to see even an episode or two later with Bea as a guest, even if it had been an episode of what happened at barnhurst before the barnhurst 5 came to wentworth.
i don't know if she's over rated as such, but a lot of people seem to love Maxine Daniels - i loathed that era, mostly because of her! and she lasted entirely too long.... and Lexie has really been annoying me since she got her sensible haircut
... (I'm currently watching around episode 630) and her stint has also been too long.
JL