I think it's overblown how mad people were at Hero since one, he was all but known for such a long time before he was actually revealed so people had time to wrap their heads around it (yes people argued Brave could be other characters, but it was mostly accepted to be Hero), and two, the time span between Hero and Banjo's reveals was literally within the same Direct. Plus a lot of more in-the-know people acknowledged while DQ may not be as much of a thing here, it's an institution in Japan - so the character may not be who they wished for but made a lot of sense.
I know it spawned the Hoes Mad meme, but there were other characters that caused much more contention.