Why people criticize Anet
People criticize Anet because it’s the internet, and they can. Anyone with a keyboard is a certified professional critic now, protected by the guise of anonymity. You get an awful lot of inept forum warriors coming out of the woodwork to post their verbal feces, no matter what the game is.
You make it sound as if people didn’t gripe about stuff they didn’t like until the advent of internet.
It’s harder to gripe when starring people in the eye. Griping always happened but the ability to do it anonymously makes it easier to forgo any kind of etiquette1 or tact.