If the main motivation is “to own the haters”, “to prove people wrong”, “to make a group mad” …then the game itself is a weaponized prop and That’s how you end up defending mid products harder than you’d ever defend great ones.
rooting for success out of spite isn’t healthier than rooting for failure out of spite
What kind of dysfunctional sad sack would buy a game out of spite?
This doesn’t seem like a hot take unless your ambient temperature is very unusual.