I may be reading into this wrong which is totally fair, but hear me out!
I feel like there’s a difference between people offering genuine criticism, and people hating the game. Personally, I love the game, but as I’ve said before, regardless of me loving the game, it wasn’t worth the price before this update. Most of my hours were me running around my completely flat island (literally in circles) unsure of what to do LOL so that may just have been me overwhelmed by the space of my island. Either way, my money stance still stands.
I’m unsure about ACNH’s budget and size of their team and really am too lazy to check. But just compared to other games, even indie games with one to two person dev teams with BEAUTIFUL graphics, I don’t think ACNH’s graphics are an excuse as to why they couldn’t include simple features from past games. Like really, from somebody who has studied 3d models and also has a boyfriend who is very very talented in making such things, we’ve both agreed that the really only models coming close to impressive are the bugs and fish. (I adore the whale shark c: ) Does that make me an expert? Absolutely not, far from! But I still call it like I personally see it- ACNH graphics are stellar compared to old games. They’re lacking when it comes to the models themselves.