They really dun goofed with the "we're Christians" rebrand
Alyssa Grenfell just posted a good video on this but there's a point I'd like to add.
Back when Mormons just called themselves "Mormons," people were aware that Mormonism had some overlap with Christianity but also some wacky beliefs that took it out of Christianity's bounds. Christian apologists were glad to expound upon the doctrinal differences and how heretical they were, but it wasn't a big deal to most people. As far as they were concerned, Mormons were either peculiar devout people with good life outcomes or a culty conformist homophobic sexist church, and comparing the specifics of their theology to other Christians' was irrelevant.
I don't think the leadership realized that once Mormons started presenting themselves as Christians, they would be evaluated on Christianity's terms. It looks strange to see people loudly adopting the surface features of Christianity and claiming to be part of the Christian club while quietly holding beliefs that Christians object to, and Christians are just pointing out that they haven't forgotten that the deep quiet part is still there. The "Mormons aren't Christian because..." rhetoric has broken containment and is louder than ever because the Church forced the issue.
So they're trading a reputation of "a distinct religious group, plenty of fine people" for a reputation of "a group that argues with other Christians that they're Christian too." It's really not working well for them.
EDIT: this isn't meant to kick off more "can Mormons be called Christian?" semantic debate. The point is, Christians are not going to set their radical differences aside and accept Mormons no matter how much Mormons try to blend in, and the Church is deeply mistaken if it thinks that'll happen. Christians actually respected it more as a "different religion," in a pluralistic society where it's gauche to make fun of other religions, than they do as a faith that insists it's Christian, which just opens itself up to correction from fellow Christians against the Christian standard.
Interestingly, people on r/exjw report seeing the same thing from their governing body! I guess in a society that's becoming so secular, with retention rates dropping ever further, they're hoping to attract converts familiar with nominal Christianity who vaguely seek "Christian" community and aren't familiar with biblical Christianity enough to find the doctrine strange. At least that's what would make sense in the US; I wonder if expansion in the developing world calls for a Christianizing strategy too.