Or when fans assign malice to a creator for a difference in taste.

We've all likely seen this before. Often there are instances where a character is not depicted to a fandom's tastes and a creator is accused by that fandom of "hating" the character. Luke in The Last Jedi. Superman in DCAU or DCEU. Dante in the Devil May Cry reboot.

It's one thing to complain about a direction you don't like but accusing a creator of hating a character is often much harder to justify. I don't think most of them even say when they hate a character very often.