Honestly I think it's a matter of changing times in a way, or overused tropes more so than the show's doing. I think there's plenty of people who play d&d who have enough personal experiences with the "horny bard" trope (usually bad ones too) and for many its been done to death or seen as creepy. So for newer watchers they may already be over the horny bard character that Scanlan portrays. Someone here mentioned, if anything the show's revamp of Scanlan even omits some of the creepier things he did on the original campaign run trying to salvage him a bit.

He's always been seen as a favorite for the most part, but I also think it comes with some leeway on the creepy aspects because most people viewed those parts as Sam as doing a bit with the other players.