A lot of divisive Sonic titles actually have some really good parts in them, some of which might make up for the rest of the game.
I wish this fandom wasn't so obsessed with chasing some perfect formula. I pretty much stopped talking about Sonic honestly online because I'm tired of people dogpiling on me for it.
Honestly, I agree: almost every formula they've tried has some strokes of brilliance to it somewhere, even in the most divisive of titles. Even in Forces, I still stand the character creator and Wispons were absolutely genius, they just didn't take advantage of it as much as they could have. I really hope they consider bringing Rookie back someday to make up for that.
Heck, even hated gameplay styles in Adventure have hidden greatness: With simple physics changes and fixing the radar in SA2, the shooting levels and treasure hunting levels become a blast. People are honestly too quick to demand something be thrown out: No one's willing to look at it and go "What if they made these changes? Could it be made better?" Outside of modders, that is.
As for the fanbase: I only talk about it here so much because y'all are chill and don't demand me burned at the stake for daring to suggest certain titles are overhated or that I don't like certain popular titles as much as others, and I appreciate that. Very rare to find calm Sonic discourse like this.