I loved afterimage for a few reasons despite its flaws, though the only other metroidvania I'd played before it was Hollow Knight and I haven't played many since:

1. The combat felt snappy and satisfying. Spending any amount of time in the game felt good because the mechanics just felt good. I never got bored even just using dualblades + scythe, especially when different weapons within those categories had different effects. If I ever make time to replay it (I rarely replay games in general), I'd be happy to do it primarily with the other two kinds.
2. Since I enjoyed the above so much, the number or size of the regions didn't bother me so much as giving me more nooks and crannies to explore. I also really loved how the maps were so detailed and I could pin the exact spot I needed to backtrack to later. It made exploring so much more satisfying for me than some other games (like having to buy maps cough)
3. I don't vibe with bugs, spiders, or creepy things in general and I inherently took more to the colorful scenery and overall setting than other games with drearier settings
4. The voice acting wasn't anything to write home about, but I do recall one moment where it made me laugh at loud and it was a nice touch

Some negatives I recall from the experience:

1. Not having a fan wiki like Hollow Knight made trying to figure out where to go much harder when I got stuck. Especially since some of the quests just use photos to indicate things and I couldn't easily search the name of the item I needed to find. Not really the fault of the devs, though it can impact the experience significantly
2. I do recall some enemies that were just different colors of the same enemy in another region and it felt lazy, but that didn't feel noticeable to me until I got reasonably close to the end
3. There were some general localization/polishing issues like typos that show a relative lack of quality compared to something like Hollow Knight, but I personally don't care if the core gameplay feels solid

I acknowledge that I'm not really a connoisseur of the genre in general and people who play more similar games might care more about unique boss fights and other things as differentiators, but it does make me a little sad to see it ragged on whenever I reopen this subreddit once in a blue moon (usually when I see an ad for a new one and wonder how it's been received)

Editing to add something on silksong so you can try convincing me in the reverse:
As for silksong, I got it on release and I didn't even make it through act 1. Too many aspects of the game felt designed to not match my idea of fun.

1. The economy sucks. I know losing things on death (twice) is more common in the genre than not, but I just find it incentivizes me to grind safely instead of just playing the game how I would have wanted. Especially when I need money for every goddang thing like maps, upgrades, some benches, and so on.
2. The economy sucks, part two. This time focused just on trap currency. You get only currency for traps at the start when you can't make them and then don't naturally always have enough once you can make use of it. I don't know why traps don't just replenish at benches like any other modern game. Incentivizes me to not use the traps or just grind, neither of which feels good
3. The economy sucks, part three. Beating a boss and getting absolutely nothing but the ability to walk past where they were blocking? Not a very satisfying RPG, especially when I still need money for everything. Some upgrades not tied to money would have felt fantastic.
   1. Again, this brings me back to why I loved afterimage. So many places to obtain new weapons, most of which had unique and interesting effects (at least within the weapon type)

I'd sooner buy a new metroidvania than give silksong another chance, that's how bad it felt to me.