I think you are confusing sales with people liking the new design. People that have bought into the ecosystem may buy the new design even though they prefer the previous iteration.
If sales are not the most direct indicator of whether people like something or not, what is?
Apple has released many MacBooks with essentially the same keyboard design since 2015. If people really hated them, sales should have tanked in subsequent years, and Apple would have something different by now, 4 years later. The people who keep posting that they'll switch to PCs, would all have switched by now.
Do you suppose the number of people complaining here represent a significant percentage of the millions who have purchased MacBooks with the butterfly keyboards?
People who are satisfied with them aren't going to flock to every post to balance out the complaints. Those who do post in favor of the new MBPs get downvoted into grayness. There may be issues, but the incessant negativity feels bizarrely overblown and seems memetic at this point, if not outright paid for by rival companies.
One, you can buy something and not enjoy it. Two, you can be given the computer by your employer and not like it. Three, you can not like the current model but buy it anyway because you want to stick with the Mac ecosystem.
I’ve been in numerous meetings where everyone is complaining about their new mpb while others in the meeting saying they are going to hold onto their older models as long as they can.
Finally, they are moving away from this design which indicates they too see a problem with the keyboard.
