Well it's selling with kids I'm sure. The ones running around defending the game are the adults who play. Parents aren't following video game news and don't know the game could mess up Johnny's new switch lite. Any GameStop, Walmart, Best buy, Target employee is not going to tell the parents that even if they did know about it.
I get the feeling that some of the vocal defenders of it are trying to take whatever success they can to make a point. Like this guy:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nyxzwNc_3cI
All they have so far is UK sales data but they are treating it like a victory lap over those "darn dirty haters". This guy is having so much fun playing his game that he spent hours making a YouTube video to complain that people don't like his new favorite game instead of playing it..... That is if he is even playing it. I'd be interested if these die hard defenders started posting screen Caps of their play time. I'm curious if the game is a blast like they claim or has this just become some arbitrary culture war for them to try to win.