Got a bad reputation at launch because it was so buggy, the main “quest” was lackluster and the world felt empty due to a lack of NPCs. It was genuinely in a bad state.
They’ve made loads of improvements and the game is really fun now. After the Wastelanders update, which brought NPCs and a new main quest, it started to shake off some of the negativity but I think many people are still turned off due to the launch stigma