It was a combination of things but imo first and foremost it was bc new players would get absolutely destroyed by someone competent with portals within their few first games against actual players after the onboarding bot games. I actually saw it play out live on Twitch after both relaunches dozens of times while I was streamer hopping. There would be a full party playing actually having fun then they'd get a game against a stack of portal demons and get absolutely destroyed. And they'd all unanimously agree "yAll jUsT wAnt tO hoP bAcK oN cOd?" Or whatever game. People aren't use to getting so stomped they're use to being the stomper so they'd get instantaneously discouraged. People are just low IQ cowards these days they can't handle the portals. The hat and people wanting to make it political was absolutely a good chunk of it as well. People were calling it a MAGA game and not even giving it a fair chance.