It's also that Phil relies on the "hype" to create any kind of buzz about himself. If he were to admit that AAA were dead, he'd lose even more excuses for his poor performances.
It's bizarre that Phil, who gets pissy over perceive bugs and glitches didn't try to ratio sega over managing to fuck up dlc in a way no AAA company has before. He was handed yet another chance to dunk on people who deserved it and didn't take it.
Likely he defends sonic because he's scared of potentially offending a whale or even more likely derich.
On the side of sonic fans defending it, they're just desperate to have a "good game" again that they lowered their own standards have it. Give it a few years and I'd bet that we'll be seeing "video essays" admitting the truth. Plus most of them haven't matured.