I think it's a fuzzy situation where it's kind of both. Loki lives in the MU and thus is bound by the rules of the universe and his relationships to the other characters, if he didn't the universe would fray around him. But he's also been pretty meta over the past few years and we as readers know that for the change to his characters to stick long term, it has to be accepted by the readers. I think in his case it's sort of that the perceptions of the characters in universe usually end up as a mirror of the perceptions of the readers. And while Loki certainly has fans that understand where he's at right now, I think in the larger sense, a lot of people either are kind of oblivious to the change, or think it's just temporary. It's far from a universally known and accepted status quo.