I remember people cheering when Yoda showed up with the clones in AOTC.
I remember people cheering when Anakin cut off DooKu's head (a little morbid, but they were excited).
This whole 99% of people don't like the new ones is a tad on the delusional side if you ask me.
At the end of the day, -enough- people liked them, that the people who didn't really weren't an issue.