I don’t know, it was pretty bad at points. The toxic negative reaction quite literally ended Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd’s careers. Even McGregor has also said that he felt the reactions during their releases were mixed. Like, maybe there was a more negative swing in the early 2010’s but the statement that the initial reactions to the prequels were largely favorable doesn’t have a lot of ground to stand on. Star Wars fandom has never really been super positive though, there always seems to be a lot of backlash and toxicity. The prequels were no exception.

From what I can remember (and it’s been a minute haha) I’d actually say the overall fan reaction to the prequels and sequels was pretty similar up until the points both series wrapped up. Prequels had the benefit of ending on their best movie which made the general consensus much more positive, but it wasn’t until Disney started to release their films that I started to see the common opinion being that the prequels were good.

I’m just saying it how I remember it, and how I remember it is much different than what OP was claiming.

There were still plenty of online forums back then, and their reception wasn’t good, especially from the older crowd. They were far from loved to the extent they are now. Their reception was mixed critically and from adult audiences. It takes a 5-second google to see their reception was far from glowing.

The difference now is simply that we see more of the general populace’s opinions due to the digital age we live in. I get there’s a lot of nostalgia with people aged 21-30 for the prequels but at the time of their release they were not even close to being widely adored. Hell, I’d even argue they weren’t met with general favor at all until Disney started putting out their films.

You may not be old enough to remember it but they absolutely were