I guess romanticizing may have been a wrong word. My idea was that the kitchen sink is about showing something as broken and in need of a change while The Whisperers appear to be the opposite; the change is bad, and it brings harm to either you or others or both. The status quo is moral, and moving up in society is wrong.
Also, if you focus only on Mrs. Ross's story arc it is actually romanticizing. And I don't know why you wouldn't do that. Everyone else in the film can be seen as a plot device to pave her way. If her finding out the happiness in her poor little life and forgetting the money and the mansion isn't romanticizing then what is? Or then I understand the word somehow wrong.
Also, if you focus only on Mrs. Ross's story arc it is actually romanticizing. And I don't know why you wouldn't do that. Everyone else in the film can be seen as a plot device to pave her way. If her finding out the happiness in her poor little life and forgetting the money and the mansion isn't romanticizing then what is? Or then I understand the word somehow wrong.
Mrs. Ross has, over the years, built up her routines and physical space on her own and has even extended this to include voices that only she hears. All of this---absent the voices--is really common with people who live on their own for a long period of time. You become your own world.
I agree that conflict happens when she ventures out of her flat, but the stuff outside her flat is also her impoverished environment. I don't see how her life is romanticized when she can't walk down her hallway without hearing an argument through the ceiling (and an argument that seems to trigger some of her own memories of abuse), she can't attend church without being mocked for her genuine belief, and she can't have a conversation with a stranger without being taken advantage of.
To me, this is as if a film began with someone drunk or using drugs and ended with them in the same state. Yes, it is what might make them comfortable. It is what they know. But is it really romantic? Is it what we want for the character? Is it what is best for the character?
I can see how you could say that her problems are connected to the money. And when the money is gone she goes back to where she was. But while the money might be a catalyst for her experiences with the horrible family or her estranged husband, the problem is not that the money brings issues on its own. Mrs. Ross doesn't know how to interact socially. She doesn't have children or nieces/nephews or younger people around to help her as she becomes more physically and mentally frail.
Also, I think it is significant that she isn't really happy before the money. Her neighbors are awful, she is mocked at church, her husband is gone.
Do you see the ending as being happy? To me it is tragic, even if Mrs. Ross is back in her comfort zone. I see a woman who is only going to become more isolated and more delusional. There is exactly one person in the world who seems to care about her well-being, and that's her social worker, and even he is not totally on the ball.