Originally Posted by
SiegePerilous02
Because status quo is God and status quo requires Gotham to be a shithole.
The out of universe needs (stories need to be written in crapsack Gotham with all its creepy villains to sell comics) unfortunately dictate that things can't progress too far to the positive for Batman no matter how much he and his allies and the non-corrupt cops of the GCPD try. People have a kneejerk reaction to nothing visibly changing, so it's assumed Batman only makes things worse and that he doesn't fight crime on multiple fronts (despite stories and media where he does this very thing). It doesn't matter how much compassion or wealth he throws around to benefit society in-stories, because the next writer will undo it. He is perceives as just punching down at the poor or mentally ill.
Despite the fact that for most of his history he fights very well dressed and well off gangsters, aliens, monsters, ghosts, inter-dimensional fiends, and fantastical supervillains whose classification of being mentally ill is fairly dubious (the Joker being the big example). even if they are legit insane, most of them are also violent serial killers and terrorists. He's not beating up the average citizen with benign mental illnesses and would actually defend them when they are more likely to be the victims. At least when he's written correctly.