This was always going to be a niche game, but that's good.
There's been so much negative press about SC this week, it makes me think that nobody's swallowed the copium so much as CIG. We as players tend to overlook bugs we're just used to working around to have a good time. However CIG has made so many excuses for why they aren't fixed or they aren't gonna be fixed (waiting on the next system refactor), that they simply can't conceive of how outsiders are going to see the jankiness and be repulsed (and feel vindicated that they weren't "suckered" like us). Point is, even though I personally enjoyed watching the Siege of Orison livestream, and didn't mind all the problems, to outsiders who were already skeptical about this game, it was just gasoline on the fire (the fire being their already-existing scorn for Star Citizen).
Well, I don't really care. I still believe in the project, long term. But I know it's always going to be a niche gaming audience, not mainstream like GTA6 or NMS. But that's fine. I want a game with depth, aesthetics, and community. The other things out there are basically single-player games with great graphics and gameplay but not much community, or MMO's with okay graphics and shallow gameplay but great community, or any 2 of those things done well but not all 3.
And the most important thing to me is that SC is crowd-funded. Which is why it's ambitious, why it's taking so long, and why it has so many interesting things/features crammed into it.
So I'm not disheartened by the negative press, because most of those folks are toxic blowhards rage-baiting or flame-fanning for clicks. But some people who never heard of SC but see these negative react videos might get curious, and actually try it. And some of them might be like me and have fun despite the jank and bugs and missing features, and stick around long enough to see the potential around the corner, perhaps even join an org.
And those are the kinds of people I'd like to see stick around.