I can't speak for everyone, only myself. It seemed to be mostly a case of 'What was promised is not what was delivered.' They promised a ton of locations to travel to and explore, and we got a lot, but they are 99% empty with maybe one POI per location. However, what really killed it for me is the inventory system. Hauling resources around for crafting is an incredible chore, meaning your only real option is to use the lodge's infinite weight box. I hated it.
It sounds like this would be easy for tools like SponsorBlock to label and skip segments as ads. However, it would be tough on smaller channels where people might not be labeling them as such.
This is probably in my top five games of all time. I think it really works if you try hard not to compare it to other games, and just play it on its own merit. It can definitely be janky, but that's part of the charm.
They're still trying to decide between base 64 encryption and MD5.
Edit: before anyone says it, yes I know.