Well, nah, I remember being ****ed during the GameCube era when Parties and sports spin-offs came out year after year and the only proper Mario titles were... well, not even Sunshine, I maintain Sunshine would've been much much better as its own new IP without Mario. So pretty much just Paper Mario 2 and Mario & Luigi. Metroid is in a similar position now, but more so. A history of long long dry spells, the last game was about an abusive relationship, and now this. And how do Metroid fans respond to it? If they buy it to show support for the franchise, would that be interpreted as support for this game in particular? If they don't buy it to show disapproval, Nintendo will probably conclude "welp, people just don't like Metroid anymore."
I've still only finished Metroid Prime 1, so I don't really care as much, but yeah, I understand why Metroid people are mad and think it's warranted (especially since I think the game itself looks boring and lifeless). What did they think was gonna happen?