Don't be dumb. As
@red mentioned, fans criticising aspects of the game have little to do with the current situation. The only place I ever criticised Shenmue 3 was on this forum. I very much doubt that the hords of potential buyers came over to the Shenmue Dojo and said to themselves "fuck me, that Reprise guy isn't a fan of the second half of the game and finds the story weak, nobody should buy this game" Anyways I did that after I had played sufficiently through the game, possibly even after I had beaten it. Besides, I also wacked a bunch of 9 and 10/10 scores on metacritic and other websites where I could review the game and accentuated the game's positives whilst diminishing its flaws to paint the game in as a positive light as possible.
I criticised the game as a fan who was generally reasonably underwhelmed with what we got and questioned some of the creative decisions that were made. I think as individuals we are perfectly within our right to critique the game. If you want to blame anyone, blame the individuals who kicked up a massive fuss about having to click a different launcher to play the game on PC. That was the final nail in the coffin in my opinion.
Hell, if you really want to blame the correct person, blame Yu Suzuki and his team. They're the ones who ultimately made the game what it is, with its warts and all, they're the ones who failed to ensure the franchise's future was guaranteed, and they're the ones who failed to ensure that the game was marketed correctly.