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 agree, there are still gems like Breen as well. But the fact that more than half of your national broadcast team is dedicated to lamenting lines such as, "I hate that teams do X now," or "AD looks unengaged every other game" despite elite defense just allows casuals to parrot the soundbite. You see it all the time on r/NBA, and it's impossible to have actual discussion beyond that. This goes for "analysts" too, so it's a multi-front effort to disparage their own product.

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.