In reality they honestly just really enjoyed ripping apart “objectively bad” media with a mix of good and very bad faith criticisms as their main friend group activity so at a certain point they didn’t want to like anything they weren’t nostalgic for because they played it when they were younger

Tbh the consequences of that friend group and their “we have as a group deemed this game/show/etc bad and you will be judged if you play/watch it” social structure are still felt to this day but it’s also so funny when I pick up a “worst game ever made” and it’s actually pretty good