That doesn't mean they hate the levels themselves but how they were implemented.
The limited aesthetics of Green Hill Again, Chemical Plant Again, Sky Sanctuary Again and Generic City but in a boring void world takes a lot away from the levels, especially when they had cool and unique aesthetics that added a ton of personality to them in their original games.
People don't like that the solution Sonic Team found to barely changing the levels up was to make Sonic control like ass, especially in 2d and it doesn't help that the homing attack isn't built for some levels where you need to repeatedly HA a string of enemies to where it feels like a detriment.
It's a far cry from the original leaks saying these were the best parts of the game. People just want them to be done a lot better next time.
I can agree on the reused aesthetics. I would love it if they were all brand new levels with brand new aesthetics. The controls need to be better in them, which is strange because they've gotten it right before so why would they screw it up. And I can't stress how the boost being a self-refilling stamina meter kills the challenge in this style of gameplay. That needs to be not how they work in the cyberspace levels. It can be that way in the fields, sure, but rings refilling boost needs to be how it works in the levels.
But honestly, as someone who gets little to no enjoyment out of the open feild style, and them focusing on that resulted in them majorly screwing up a style of play I really like... well you can see the conclusion I'm reaching here. Maybe if they made it so you could go through the game
ONLY doing the cyberspace stages. Just like how you can go through only fishing or go through completely avoiding Cyberspace, then it would be better. But since Cyberspace only rewards you with keys and you need a gazillion other collectables to make it through, that's not a viable method of play.
