I can’t comment on the reaction to TPM at the time, because I was a kid and only knew other kids opinions and we all liked it… but I do know, once I finally started going on the internet, the discourse about the film was overwhelmingly negative.
Honestly it still kinda is, but I feel like there’s now a pretty significant section of PT lovers out there (mostly people who saw them when they were kids too, if I had to guess).
I saw TPM with my roommate and fellow Star Wars fan in college and both of us walked out of the theater having had a good time. We loved any scene with a lightsaber in it, brushed off Jar-Jar as kid stuff that wasn’t the end of the world, and had a good laugh at the Tusken Raiders during the pod race.
It’s not perfect by any stretch, but at least I enjoyed myself.