I don't see any bashing either, to be fair.
I admired Dolly and am sad we lost her, but I was aware she had made statements of the generic "live and let live" variety, re: trans in recent years.
I assumed she was surrounded by unthinking #bekind people, and had never had to think too deeply about it or have the hard conversations.
I get the sense that she, like many people, conflated "trans person" with "self hating homosexual who just couldn't take it anymore", and pitied them. She was a well-meaning person whose kindness was taken advantage of. A lot of us started out in the same place, so I can't fault her for that.
She's also American, and this issue is not talked about in a normal way in America. It's divided among political lines, when it shouldn't be, and religion often gets dragged into it, when it shouldn't be. Americans often view criticism of trans as a Republican thing, or they get failed by advocates who hammer on religion instead of sticking to the facts.
(They'll say things like "God opened my eyes", "God made you this way" or "God only made two sexes" and truly seem oblivious to how subjective that is, and how it undermines their argument. British TERFs, by contrast, stick to reality and rational thinking, because we recognise that these arguments are universal and are the most likely to cut through.)
Long story short, it's been an uphill battle to find gender critical content in America, so I am inclined to cut American women more slack. The situation has improved massively in the last two years or so, though. High profile cases are starting to hit the news and we are seeing more bipartisan support for detransitioners and the protection of women's sports. It's slow, but it's happening.
If Dolly hadn't been an ailing woman in the last years of her life, who knows what her opinions would ultimately have come to be? I think she likely would have ended up even more neutral about it in public than before. She doesn't strike me as the kind of woman who would have sold out other women - especially not poor and working class women. I don't think women losing scholarships, or being forced to share prison space with men, would have been something she condoned. I imagine the stories of trans widows and detransitioners would have moved her too.
Ultimately we'll never know, of course, but I was happy to show her grace in life and I still am in death. Trans has always been a movement that exploits women's kindness. Sometimes it's best to meet that with grace.