No yeah I seen this stuff on the Tungle and it's very silly. I do think the human zoo arc(and even the non-plot eps around then) were kinda eh. And the "steven's racist uncle" episode definitely rubbed me the wrong way, but part of that was just the very unfortunate timing (mid november 2016). And I worried that might have meant the show was going downhill permanently, but its picked up since then in a major way. The last couple eps especially have been super super good, I defo recommend picking it back up. Like yeah it is not a perfect radical screed, it is a nice cartoon for children and tweens about how being kind is good.

Other good toons I highly recommend are

Adventure Time -- everyone knows about AT, but no one watches it any more, and they are Missing Out, literally every season has been better than the last and I'm still super torn up that it's ending soon. Finn is my very good SON and I can't believe how much growth he's gone through, it's incredible.

Star vs the Forces of Evil -- I'm a bit behind on this one but not through any fault of its own. Really fun cute show about a screwup magical princess and her best friend, which works in some broader plot stuff toward the end of season 1, and then starts really going ham on the plot in season 2-3. imo season 1 was very hit or miss, but the crew eventually hits its stride like midway through season 2 and the writing quality is much more consistent after that.

Voltron: Legendary Defender is really fun, though the fandom is 1. LEGENDARILY bad and 2. Will make you think the show and characters have a lot more depth to them than they actually do. On the other hand, Pidge is so so so so so good and worth watching the show for, at least for me.

Motorcity is an under-appreciated one that was tragically cancelled after only one season. It's a fun time, and the animation is unbelievably good.

Oh and if you somehow managed to miss Avatar: The Last Airbender, uhhh, go watch that. It is equal to the hype.

sorry this ran on so long, i love the good good toons

The fandom backlash is way older than Gem Harvest, like House Guest and Keep Beach City Weird in Oct. 2014, which were both before Jailbreak (with its Garnet vs. Jasper fight) that really helped the fandom grow. Say Uncle, Bismuth, Chille Tid, some Sadie and Lars episode I've forgotten the name of and some shipping dispute between Amethyst-Peridot-Lapis that really made some fans pissed off and Alone at Sea too.

I think the scheduling is what is actually annoying lots of fans more than anything else. There was a dip in production quality too at some point which some eagle eyed fans apparently think was down to some specific production studio in Korea since it was noticeable only in some episodes.

I actually think that the growth of /r/StevenUniverse has something to do with fandom behavior. It's probably no secret that Tumblr and Reddit fandoms of the show are symbiotic with each other, it brings a large audience for Tumblr generated content and the communities overlap. Reddit holds grudges forever on a lot of topics; on a many of superficial ones they've been relentless to the degree that people like me who care less for the complaints must have unsubscribed.