I mean deciding to not contribute to and distance yourself from a fanbase does not mean you cant play the games and enjoy them.
This. Playing the games does not mean you should be associated with the "typical" fanbase. Frankly, if people make assumptions about you, correct them.
I'm okay with this.
I won't lie, I found Shadow really fun to play as in his appearances. While I didn't get to play as him in Black Knight yet, I did enjoy him in Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow, Battle, and 06. They all made him really fun and unique, bar Adventure 2, of course. I haven't played as him in Rivals yet, but the game doesn't have really unique gameplay for other characters, soooooo...
I can't remember if I played as him in Riders. Riders is an odd game, and much like Mario Kart, there's only 3 general playstyles. That said, I do prefer to play as Shadow when he's not cloned gameplay. Not to say he's an exact duplicate in the Dreamcast saga(due to different stages or different power-ups/abilities, he is a little changed. Heroes and Adventure 2 doesn't let you much feel the major differences between him and Sonic when possible. His own game helps that, although ironically all the other playable characters are just basically clones of Shadow, or Sonic, if you will. I don't mind for the speed ones, but Omega, Rouge, and Vector are kind of weird when you're using a Homing Attack with 'em). 06, I will admit, has everybody play differently in some way. A few abilities are shared, but they're mixed and matched. This is a good thing too.