That makes sense. I'm generally extremely sceptical of critics, to start with, so I would not generally red flag that discrepancy, generally (Look at the awards shows, they frequently are at odds with what is actually popular, since they are fundamentally coming at things from a different angle). But the other criteria, all taken together, do seem strong indicators, so that makes sense, which is a shame.
Personally, I was pleasantly surprised, but only because the bar of expectation was extremely low. Over all, I still don't think it's particularly great on the whole (although it had its moments). I just wish we could have more discourse about the things it did well/badly without it constantly falling into the woke/anti-woke nonsense, all the time. (For me, at least, 'too woke'/'not woke enough' has nothing to do with its issues - they're all about storytelling and handling of established lore/canon)
Of course it does. This particular change may seem innocuous in itself, but the idea of compliance with ridiculous laws like this one, in one jurisdiction, being implemented in a project used globally will result in compromising everyone's privacy/security, regardless of whether they are even subject to that law or not.
If anything, it's more troubling for those outside the relevant jurisdiction, since we get 0 say on the laws, and have no actual reason to comply.