Lol, I have no idea either. To be accurate, I”m seeing more of the defense of THOI than I am the actual negativity, so it might have been a similar reaction back then, just more amplified now. I do think the era makes a difference too, this is six years later. Now everyone, not just f/f fans or even fandom in general, is so much louder and…MORE on social media. But I’d also say that, as loud as the outcry over things like Willow/Tara and Glee (in general) were, the f/f community specifically has become more vocal about what it doesn’t like and why. And every year, every movie that brings along another unhappy ending just adds to how much people are waiting for one.
I think maybe also what would have been different for that one is that while people would have groaned at the initial premise of Life Partners, it did seem like a friendship between a straight girl and a lesbian from the offing? So it was more a muted “oh, this again” from the start, instead of what we got here, people getting excited over thinking THOI was a f/f romcom in the vein of TATBTILB and then being disappointed.