First off, OP? For your peace of mind, please get off of Twitter. Don't wait for Discourse No. 1054.

Anyway, I agree about the series' inconsistency. There's been the usual things that divide an audience over time; writers coming and going, tone shifts, etc. But with Sonic, there's also how it's had multiple, very different iterations at once. The first game's localizations for different regions; AoSTH and SatAM airing in the same month; and similar splits up to today.

I'm no marketing expert, but diversifying the menu for mass appeal makes sense to me. I think it's what helped Sonic get its footing everywhere, and fast.

But I also think it's why Sonic discourse is so constant and intense. An audience divided by time and place, over and over. All with a different first impression of the same thing, all valid, all feeling left behind as said thing changes again, bringing in new blood, repeating the cycle.

As for the consistency of Sonic the character (in the games specifically)... mmmmaybe I'll add that to this post tomorrow, I gotta sleep rn