> Was the dislike just because of the change?

It's just because it looked like a WIntel PC and thus was a threat to the collective illusion that 1996-Apple offered anything substantially different or better than Windows '95 (source: was a 1996 Macintosh user who used the term “WIntel”)

Compare:

- Compaq DeskPro https://serialport.org/pcs/compaq/compaq-deskpro-en-c300a/#p...

- Packard Bell Legend https://old.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/hjomez...

- HP Pavilion https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personal...

- Gateway 2000 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Gateway_...