People are not being unreasonable when criticising the game's shift of focus from community and villager-based interaction to customisation and decoration. Telling people to - essentially - shut up and play a different game is pretty rude and uncalled for.
No one is suggesting that New Horizons should have been a "second coming" of New Leaf, either. It's not an extreme idea that New Horizons should have expanded upon the original premise of the previous three games in the series instead of swaying so left of field. People are critical of how much the game has changed, not of the concept of this change.
I didn't tell anyone to shut up though? I'm sorry if I came off that way. I personally just think that if a game doesn't cater to a gamestyle that I want and I keep comparing it to other titles, I'd rather just have myself playing the older titles instead of trying to force myself to like said game and criticize it for what it's not. I believe the older games were more of a relaxing life simulator game, ACNH (while still a life simulator) is more of a decorating game. I understand the upset with it not being very interaction-focused, but I feel ACNH is being discredited too much for what it's not rather than being credited for what it has to offer.
It's also the fact that people keep comparing it to ACNL to ACNH that bugs me. Saying "ACNL is better than ACNH in almost every way except for decorating" assumes one already had some preconceived notion that ACNL was the standard and that ACNH should have just been... ACNL 2.0, I guess? First, decorating is a MAJOR aspect of ACNH, once you sweep this under the rug you're already criticizing ACNH for what it's mainly not and of course ACNL can trump over the other aspects that aren't decorating. Second, while I don't have much experience in older games asides from ACNL, I can't say ACNH didn't expand on some premises of ACNL. Wasn't ACNL a groundbreaking game because you could actually decorate your town and implement ordinances and stuff, something you couldn't really do before? I understand the multiplayer games were removed in ACNH, but decorating-wise ACNH improved
immensely compared to ACNL. Also, villager interactions and friendships are still there, old and new NPCs are around to chat with on a daily basis, there's bug/fish/fossil collecting to be done, etcetera. I personally think ACNH still has the backbone aspects of an Animal Crossing game while expanding on the idea of massive decoration. If we're comparing games, I would say interaction-wise ACNL and ACNH are actually really similar and neither really have a heavy advantage in that aspect.
All in all, maybe it's just me, but I'd rather ACNH be criticized for what it is than continue beating it up for what it's not. As a decorating game? ACNH is an absolute solid game. As a multiplayer game? Not really, you're better off playing other games with friends. As an interactions-based game? You're also better off playing the older titles if you really love this gamestyle. We're more than a year into the game, people should probably know at this point that ACNH isn't and will never be a perfect copy of older games, and I think that's alright. As I said, if you prefer the gamestyle of the older games, then play those older games! ACNH will not be everyone's cup of tea and that's okay.