For me it was the prevalence of GraphQL that was annoying. I have worked with it and liked it as a technology, but it was a tell from the org I worked for an was definitely overkill for what we were doing. No matter how you slice it, GraphQL is added complexity compared to REST but of course, as with a lot in our industry, there are all the people bought in who put in the time to learn it who are going to shout, "Naw, it's easy!" To be clear I'm not saying GraphQL is super complex, just more complex than REST and if all you need is REST then that is what you should be using. Yet in my many interviews over the past year I talked to a bunch of companies who used GraphQL and I'd say, "Oh, cool, why did you choose it?" and they'd say something along the lines of, "Well, the CTO who wrote the original app thought it was cool at the time." So I've always got the impression that the backlash mostly comes from the huge evangelism it got making it out to be The New Way. Again, to be clear, I'm not saying it was marketed this way but it's how it felt at the time. Annnd again, I know this happens constantly in our field.