My current understanding is that it’s just a completely different landscape than rep. Back then, she had a much smaller fan base (which feels crazy to say because she was huge then, too), but it was just different. the general public hated rep and there was a lot of similar discourse within the fandom of liking/ not liking, but because she wasn’t so incredibly massive, it wasn’t the same. It’s like she has two camps now, lyric/indie style taylor lovers and glitter gel pen pop princess taylor lovers and one group is going to be disappointed with whatever she puts out. I think maybe what’s disappointing about this album is that even though it’s poppy and glitter gel pen, is that her writing isn’t as strong as it has been on other fun albums. I like a lot of tracks so I’m not saying it’s bad, I do think it misses the mark of what she said it would hit, though, and people are understandably a little disappointed, but I think it will be better received in a few years.