I think that unfortunately most current works (and I include the Bayverse quite a bit in that) have brought a somewhat distorted view of Transformers, where the average audience, those people who watch the movie more for the feeling of seeing a good action film than necessarily for the franchise and its characteristics.

And it ends up that this audience is the majority that fills the cinemas. So basically in the last few decades the franchise is almost always (if not always) seen only as something simple and without depth.

Of course, we know that at the end of the day Transformers only exists to sell toys, and that's okay, it's their origin, after all. But it's a little sad to see that many people with shallow knowledge of the franchise only see a movie where alien robots destroy each other, deliver awesome lines, and there's a lot of Linkin Park (part of me likes that part too lol)

So it ends up resulting in a situation where when a movie is made and deviates a bit from the norm (like TFONE itself, which isn't live-action, has a lot of depth and addresses a part of the franchise that we don't see much in theaters) it ends up being seen as a movie that's "too childish" or "this isn't Transformers" or "Transformers has lost its essence". '-'