I remember in some forums how even mentioning playing Utale Genocide would make people foam at you as you do say here, which made feel weird and wonder WTF is going on back then as it's a fucking game. Which the game itself also states (except for the Genocide ending, where now everything is serious, too bad you MUST do that route to see all of the content anyway).
One thing the thesis doesn't cover is how much Utale blatantly and shamelessly stole from previous works, including ripping off A LOT of Earthbound, to the point Toby stopped posting in Starmen probably to avoid being sued (going as far as to steal a sound bit from Earthbound's final boss, delete some notes to make it barely legally distinct, and call it a day). The game Off predates Utale and there are some similarities, like a skeleton boss that is reminiscent of Papyrus IIRC, and identical plot-points (LISA from 2014 is another case, but that one was inspired more directly by Earthbound). I also remember how the damned "they" became overused everywhere after 2015. After trannies stopped being seen as a mental illness around 2018 IIRC, this behavior got worse. Oh, and Deltarune is still unfinished to this day. Back then, I thought that freeing the monsters was the "true", best ending... But over time, the disconnect from the character you play, the player, and the monsters' fucked up goals made me reconsider it. Toby realized this as Deltarune's monsters are normal and can live with humans (or at least one) just fine.
I like to think Toby didn't intend to create this massive monster, that it escaped out of his control, instead of being responsible for making the Net objectively a worse place.
EDIT:
I do recall playing the Underbound ROM, it was not too bad, actually. Shame it was never completed as far as I know, and there's a zero chance for it being completed now after Utale. I dunno if Starmen is still active or if it became a tranny-infested hell like every other forum.
