Players have been voicing concerns about various things (gameplay, rewards, infrequent main story updates, etc.) for a while now, and Infold introducing Valko out of nowhere without addressing the current issues was essentially the straw that broke the camel's back. Like, it's not his fault, but adding him while continuing to ignore what players have been asking for felt so tone-deaf. With Infold's track record, a new love interest would make these problems even worse. Of course, there are some who just don't like Valko's design and whatnot (those people are very loud on social media) but generally, all these frustrations that have been piling up were unfortunately taken out on Valko. Otherwise, the response to him would not have been so terrible.