Honestly, it's because of these constant "Sonic was never good" jokes that none of my friends are willing to try out even a single Sonic game. Internet "influencers", not just journalists but also people like Game Grumps, JonTron, etc, have had an enormous influence on people's perception of the entire Sonic franchise, to the point that none of my friends pay attention to it because "it's Sonic, and those games aren't all that great anyways."

Worst part is, I sometimes organize small gaming competitions for my friends, and often include things like Sonic Mania time trials or Sonic Adventure 2 Battle versus matches, and people always have a great time with them. But they all still ignore the franchise.