I used to think that Elizabeth was just indifferent to Anne - rude and unfeeling, but not, as you say, malicious. I changed my mind the last time I read Persuasion, and this read is just reinforcing it. I've come to really despise Elizabeth and to see her treatment of Anne as deliberately cruel, and of such a long standing that perhaps she isn't even aware of it any more. She's worse than Sir Walter - they are both self-absorbed, but her selfishness has a hard, hard edge to it.