Nuance of とだけいうのは here

Question

From anime 夜のクラゲは泳げない, B asks A about their thoughts on a social media account dedicated to exposing e-celebs:

A: 暴露アカウントですよね？
B: あれについては　どう思う？
A: 最低だと思います。 んっ…。 　　
とだけ言うのは　
いい子ちゃんぶり過ぎなのかなって。
顔を隠して　人を傷つけて
本当にひどいと思います。
A: You mean the scandal exposing account?
B: What are your thoughts on that?
A: I think it's despicable. ...is easy to say, but I think that might be too self-righteous of me.
It's really an awful thing to do.

とだけ言うのは here is translated as "it's easy to say...", but it seems to be というのは affixed with だけ so I was wondering if it was similar to というのは coming at the beginning of a sentence.

My breakdown is something like:

I think it's awful. Well, I guess just saying that is pretending to be nice too much

How is this phrase functioning/what does it mean here? How is it different than phrasing it as と言うのだけは?

Answer 1

Actually, totally different. Unlike English only or just, だけ is very rigid on its scope and always governs the word that immediately precedes it.

「……」とだけ言うのは
lit. "saying no other thing but '...' (is)"
= just saying "..." (is) —

「……」と言うのだけは
lit. "no other thing but saying '...' (is)"
= saying "..." is the only/very thing that (is) —

If you say:

「……」と言うのだけはいい子ちゃんぶり過ぎ

it'd practically translates to:

nothing is more obviously being goody two shoes than saying "..."

cf.

魚だけは食べられない Fish is the only thing I can't eat.
それだけは勘弁してください I beg you, I can do anything but it.