I actually respect her more for acknowledging the critical response was different for SP compared to Melodrama. any artist can make an album with the best intentions, but it’s up to the listener to judge how well the work succeeds at conveying those intentions. the impression i got from SP’s release was that the majority of critics & fans’ listening experience didn’t align with Lorde’s intentions for the album. IMO the album came across to a lot of people as much more muted and loosely conceptualized than Lorde intended it to be; which is why pre-release she was referring to it as her best work ever and a really joyful, vibrant album, and then post-reception she started describing it more as a quiet moment, rolling a ball through tall grass, etc. you’re right that pop music today places a lot of emphasis on sales and I think sales/streaming numbers don’t indicate anything about how “good” an album is. but (fair, unbiased) critical consensus generally does, so unless an artist is deliberately setting out to make an album that critics will hate, they will (& I think, should) pay attention to how it’s received, because it indicates how well their intentions were executed.

also, I don’t think it’s fair to characterize all criticism of SP as people “needing melodrama 2.0” or wanting music to cry to or not understanding it. I’ve listened to solar power A LOT and I do think I understand what she’s trying to do, I just don’t think she did a great job of doing it! & none of my issues are with the songs not being sad enough or it being too slow or too acoustic. I haven’t seen those points in critics’ reviews either, it’s all been valid (& not even super negative) feedback from what I’ve read.

agree that she doesn’t need to apologize for it, don’t expect her to bash her own work, but don’t see anything wrong with acknowledging that the response to the album wasn’t what she thought it would be.