The entire situation surrounding DmC is hampered by the fact that nuance is required to understand the actual problems, and Doritos media is not good with nuance. To be fair to them, a lot of fans are not approaching it with nuance either.
1. DmC is actually a good game. I'm always amused when people say "if only this game hadn't been called _____ it'd be really good..." That is admitting that you think something is a good game, but you've just got spite over the fact that it's different from what you will accept within a certain branding. If it's good, just say it's good. It doesn't have to be better than a pinnacle entry in a series in order to admit it's not a steaming pile of crap.
2. Aside from 30fps on consoles, and being picky about the exact combat system, the real problem with DmC as far as fans go is Capcom's decision to jettison the series continuity and ongoing story. This is not Resident Evil. For all its goofiness, Devil May Cry wasn't a sprawling franchise with 12 games in it, that had been played out. There's a bit of a brainwash going on that the only way to improve or "save" a series is to "reboot it".
DMC4 had narrative and character threads left open that were never resolved, and could have been exploited in further games. Nothing would have prevented that while also updating or overhauling the presentation of the game. Fans got justifiably offended when the impression creating surrounding DmC was that Devil May Cry was old crappy and too Japoneesy and so here comes Ninja Theory to create a suave, cool, sophisticated game as only western studios can do. This is even more tragic in that Ninja Theory's abilities for narrative are actually good. DmC actually has a good story, in and of itself, and good storytelling (including characterization). It doesn't deserve to be shat upon. But all of this could have been handled in a far more organic way, synthesizing elements together.
I actually like DmC. I even like NuDante (by the end of his story and development). But fans do have a reason to be upset, and I think an even stronger game/product could have been created had Capcom gone about this in a different way.