I'm intrigued by your usage of "think critically." I've never seen it used to mean "look for things to be critical about." I always use it to mean to objectively evaluate something. I think that's a problem with a world-wide forum is often when the words are the same, meanings are different, and it leads to misunderstandings.
And to be clear, my criticisms about the Sims 4 are not because it's trendy to criticize the sims 4. I think most people aren't hating on a game to fit in with their online communities. There are always trolls, and there are some people who like to jump on the "hate train" so to speak, but on the forums here, I really haven't seen that. What I do see is long-time simmers who really, really want the game to be more engaging for them, and want to have some influence into what Sims 5 becomes.
I linked it somewhere earlier in some thread, but when the game first launched the forums were in an uproar. The devs totally ignored criticism until someone made a story about an evil guy in a hotdog outfit named Mr. Sausages which highlighted many of the problems. And yes, the devs read and acknowledged it and made changes to the game, though many of the underlying issues just can't be fixed.
I wish I were artistic enough to do something similar. Using humor, no hyperbole, just highlighting what I see are flaws but in a way that doesn't make people completely defensive.