I dunno, most of the Castlevania fans I know range from indifference to outright hatred of LoS. Most of its fanbase seems to be composed of people who liked CV's concept but weren't interested in the games at all. I think its popularity on GAF comes from a few things. It's got a handful of people who are very invested in it, there's a defined group of people who want to fight those that like it so fans can play the hipster/victim card, and the game isn't outright terrible.
I remember you following along when I played this and posted about the electric spider room and how the game design was TERRIBLE and you were like "yes, yes it is".
It's not the worst game ever made or anything, and I've played worse even in the past years, but the gameplay in LoS is so bad I don't think I could say it isn't outright terrible with a straight face. The only thing LoS has going for it is:
1) Graphics
2) Music
3) Cutscenes
4) Story
It's not even like the story is anything great, but it's ok for videogame storytelling and the cutscenes
which are the best part are actually fairly well directed with good pacing, angles, tension. The problem is the game underneath it sucks. Cox made a decent movie, but shit game. I never finished LoS either, ended up giving in about 10 hours in or something and watching the rest of the cutscenes on youtube. I might youtube the cutscenes for LoS out of curiosity, but I'd never touch the game after LoS1's gameplay.