Where did it all go wrong that being critical of something started to be seen as "being negative"? And "being negative" is somehow bad? Because we should just heckin sitdown and let people enjoy things and stuff. Fuck that hugbox shit. Maybe creative media in general wouldn't be so shit if people were more critical and didn't put their tounges down corporate arseholes to get a crumb of praise.
I hope I'm not being cringe, but I can see both sides of this.
To your point, one of the big causes that you're not allowed to mention is virtue signaling via politics. You can't criticise shit like Ghostbusters Answer the Call or The Last of Us 2 without being seen as taking a political position. While I personally don't have to worry about it, I can see people in corporate wagie jobs just trying to make rent willing to smile and nod so they don't get fired. This extends to critics as well. Publicly endorsing people like Red Letter Media, Razorfist, and Critical Drinker will get most normies agreeing with you, but all it takes is one butthurt leftie to complain to HR to be more hassle than it's worth.
But against your point, the "hugbox shit" does have a point. Some people try too hard to be seen as aloof contrarians. What Spoony, AVGN, and others complained about was the shitty games and videos we had as kids. Like AVGN said, you'd rent a game on a Friday night, and if it was shit you played it anyway because that was your whole weekend.
The problem is after all that low hanging fruit was done, a lot of negativity is dumb and exaggerated for comic effect. It's one thing to complain about genuinely bad games, but so many average or even good games get caught in the crossfire. eg. People complain about Resident Evil 5 unjustly, and as a result when Resident Evil 6 was the turd people claimed 5 was, they had nowhere to go.
There's an important distinction to make between criticism. AVGN is a fictional character, exaggerated rage for comic effect. Spoony was really just a raging autist who attacked a Christmas tree. Critical Drinker, despite his comic persona, is sharing his real opinions. Heel vs Babyface doesn't feel genuine in the slightest. I say all this because it can be exhausting to deal with these always-on nutters like Spoony, or the completely fake and misinformed clout chasers and their fanbase of NPCs. Sometimes I just want to watch a film or talk about a game I like without having to deal with another round of tard rage.