It’s because the people leaving negative reviews now are the opposite of haters.
We’re the people who still gave a damn, who were willing to put the effort to play the game, who found at least part of it entertaining enough to keep playing despite all the frustrations, who dared hope that the next quest or world or NPC would bring back the feeling of playing the old Bethesda games.
We’re the people who the game finally managed to break despite how much we tried to enjoy it. Who gave up in frustration after the last crash made us lose all the time we’d spent customizing our ship (my case), who lost the will to play after realising we knew what we’d find behind that corner or locked door because we’d already encountered them half a dozen times in exact copies of the same building in half as many planets, who after weeks of trying to find the same sense of wonder we’d found in previous Bethesda games finally gave up after the umpteenth unfulfilling quest bland generic NPC, or cookie cutter location.
And we’re the people who, even after all that, still had enough respect for a company that had once made games we’d loved not to post a negative review… until, instead of acknowledging the game’s faults and trying to fix them, Bethesda started attacking reviewers for their opinions and defending their poor design choices.