late to this thread but I think its a double whammy of the "perceived as cringe" thing you were talking about, and also just something that is unfortunately very normal for fanbases. I mean, you really only have to look as far as the main subreddit for star wars to see how many people will insist that not only are they true fans of star wars, but that what makes them a true fan is they won't accept the new movies and shows with increased diversity and decent enough plotlines garbage disney produces, and that if you like mando post season 1/the last jedi/the acolyte/etc you're probably a contrarian and a shill.

To an extent I feel like there is also like a strange tendency online for people to become fans of things with a lot of death and blood in it and to make it cutesy? I just remember back in like 2019-2020 there was a big crossover of homestuck/danganronpa fans who would fixate on some of the most violent characters in it and go "this is my baby who would never hurt anyone and I don't know why the author did this to them" so like idk