a Bethesda dev's article about Starfield that amounted to "people have no idea what the intent of a creator is or why things are like they are in the created work so (politely) shut up, please."
That's art for you. What an artist have created could be liked or hated by others, whether they understand or not. Though when it comes to shared arts, such as games, it's the artist or dev's duty to convey their idea or intent.
To what extent is that a legitimate complaint and to what extent is that clever capitalist content creators finding a less suspect way to complain that people are figuring out their tricks?
For me it depends on the person who hears/takes the complaint. If he humbled himself and listened to any complaint, he won't need to complain about complaints.