The debate about the story is relevant because it's a narrative driven SP game. If it was a Battle Royale MP game no one would give two shits about the story.
Story quality is often subjective, but just as often it can be universally agreed that something is a true work of art or garbage... Or a preponderance of a fan base might agree that a particular narrative change is a step up or down for an existing franchise or character about which fans have developed certain expectations. Do characters act logically consistent, are narrative changes made purely for shock value but struggle to make sense, etc....
How much should writers be constrained by the need to conduct at least some fan service? Disney, for example, found out that with established properties like Star Wars an otherwise solid writer/director like Ryan Johnson might not be the best fit bc most SW fans have certain logical expectations of the story and beloved characters which probably should be fulfilled to some degree if the creators want that property to continue being popular. Ryan Johnson: Knives Out was good. The Last Jedi in many ways not so much. Turning things on their head is sometimes great... But isn't always the best choice.
I guess with TLoU2 it comes down to whether or not an individual gamer truly cares about that established narrative. For many people the change of direction in TLoU2 probably wasn't a big deal. "The game plays fine, looks good...so what?" But for others TLoU2 is disappointing to the point of being offensive (for reasons that have nothing to do with a female character looking like a roided out East German swim team captain. I personally couldn't care less about this aspect other than finding it funny bc of how unrealistic it would be for a female to maintain that type of physique in a calorie starved apocalypse scenario...
).
Aside from disagreements about story beats, rating the game would come down to whether or not there's anything particularly innovative about TLoU2 that deserved all the lavish praise as Game of the Year. I'm a huge fan of the first game and feel it deserved all the accolades and then some. The second one coming out 7 years later...well...does it do much better in terms of the game play loop? It does look better, I'll give it that. But for its time the first game was objectively a far bigger accomplishment.