A lot of non-Crash fans don't really realise that people don't like Crash in spite of the linear level design but rather BECAUSE of the linear level design. Non-linearity is often treated as an objective improvement when that's a complete lie (or at the least dire misconception) - comparing a collectathon to a corridor platformer is like comparing a Metroidvania to a 2D Mario or Sonic game, they're completely different things.