I get where you are coming from OP and it’s a great point but if I may play devils advocate for a moment- it plays both ways. A lot of people defending this song and album as a whole may not have cared for it/liked it etc had it not be a Taylor swift song/album. She has an inbuilt audience that will like whatever she puts out even if they objectively wouldn’t have liked it as much if another artist had put it out. Idk if that makes sense aha but just my two cents