It definitely grew on me over time, and as more apps began to embrace it. Really well-detailed apps, like Sync, showed the true potential of what Material You can be like. It's also a little easier to distinguish the pastel and tint in sunlight (at least with sunglasses on), so that's a major plus.
I also had a terrible first experience posting on Reddit, which turned me off from activity submitting any content and only commenting rarely. I mostly lurked and voted, which I still thought of as participating in the community. But in my short time here (Kbin for me), I see the entire userbase as activity welcoming and generally nicer! Just looking at the voting scores, it seems that downvots are hardly used at all! Maybe it's a good thing we're separating from the common audience that was quick to turn toxic and become combative for the fun of it.
I think the NBA product, specifically the announcers and commentators, fail to feed a more nuanced product to their viewers. Marc Jackson's "you gotta play harder," or "you have to want it more than the other guy" just doesn't build a deep respect for the flow of the game, or the underlying strategies and tactics being gamed out. Baseball is much better in that regard, and I think it has kept the meme dilution away from the game.