Yeah, let's not get too carried away with hating on the song but I can understand where this is coming from, this song hits several common points that can spark this reaction:
- it's mostly written by Swedish/Melodifestivalen types and it shows, it has the same too generic, formulaic sound and (I think someone already mentioned something like that) some of its elements sound like right out of a filler Backstreet Boys song from the turn of the century (I'm really getting the feeling that G:son is emulating successful earlier Swedish songwriters like Max Martin and Denniz PoP, right down to their hairstyle
). It's not necessarily a bad thing, but you know, it has been 20 years and you can innovate that sound a little (Martin himself writes fairly different songs now), and so...
- it comes off as dated for a lot of people which can make it come off as even more cliche, and then there are...
- high or at least different expectations of fans, which often create unjustified bias. I mean, this currently is the initial reaction, Spain got a similar one as far as I noticed and I would imagine after some time people will get used to the song. But this is going to have a hard time becoming the standout entry for people (including casual viewers), more like "it's decent" or "just there" kind of a song, which is the reaction you don't want to get when you're big 5 and already likely to be overlooked.
From my own experience I can comment that this feels very much like a song written by committee; it has like six people among its writers and writing teams/collaborations usually work when people are used to working together, or with smaller groups. I imagine some of them didn't even meet the others and worked separately. It feels like an engineered-for-Eurovision entry not unlike what the UK sends, without the enthusiasm, bloated budget and slight propaganda angle that makes Russia's or Azerbaijan's attempts at this work.