I tried to be as oblique as possible, given that my sample size, no matter how big it seems to me, is very small; only 40-50 people out of 350,000,000, though a large number of local news broadcasts back in the day decrying the trend of adults reading "children's books" in their spare time may mean something (or it may not).

But yes, you're right: The complaints/disdain have come exclusively from one specific generational demographic (if the bit about my ex-wife was confusing, she's more than a decade older than me). Maybe I just haven't met the Gen Zs who are actively upset that grown-ups are reading novels other than "the classics", period pieces (specifically romances), and westerns. They very well could be out there in incredible, unfathomable numbers, spoiling the pattern that I believe I have seen based on my limited worldview.

So please, feel free to offer your own competing explanation for why fanciful and enjoyable books are so frequently snubbed by reviewers, etc., and why the "best" books are the ones that range from super sad to borderline unreadable experiments in frustrating your publisher's typesetter.