The "backlash" was mostly centered around the promises made by the game creator and the demo's they showed. It had everything to do with what promised / implie

The "backlash" was mostly centered around the promises made by the game creator and the demo's they showed. It had everything to do with what promised / implied vs what was actually delivered. If the creator had slapped a Open Beta tag on the box and charged $20 (and simply upped that number as they got closer to release), everyone would probably still be talking about it. But instead they delivered on 25%-50% of what they claimed was in the game.