People are only starting to notice now how poorly written Naruto has been as a father (and a Hokage) even aftet the chunin exam arc. Did they finally get tired of looking for excuses?

Did it take them two years to process the chapters or ? Two years for it to sink in?
They now acknowledge that it has been a problem for while, but they turned a blind back then.

Or is it that being fans of the character prevents them from acknowledging the bad writing?

It's one of the problems with how fandoms work. It was the same thing with the family. You were not allowed to point out the bad writing, because it would be like hating on the fam and NH by extention.

And we can't have that because we're at war w/ another famdom and we need to claim superiority!
/s

Similarly, criticizing Naruto's parenting is also seeing as hating on NH's marriage by extention. So it's easier to pretend that everything is fine and it's all Boruto's fault for ruining this perfect family. /s.

That's why, especially a few years back, a bunch of NH fans hated Boruto while glorifying Hima for being the perfect little girl that doesn't complain and therefore doesn't tarnish the image of the perfect fam they wanted.

On the opposite spectrum :
Pointing how Naruto has been treating his son is also seing as hating on Boruto himself somehow. Some fans think that we're only doing this because we're projecting our hatred for Boruto onto Naruto and that he's actually a super dad.

Lol.
If anything, my foundess of the character is the reason I'm so focused on how other characters, in this case his father, treat him.

I don't really have a conclusion, i just felt like ranting.

This kind of behavior isn't restricted to the NARUTO fandom, of course. It's everywhere.
It's kinda like a form of tribalism within fandom.

Criticism is frowned upon because it's like admitting that the 'opposite side', the 'HaTeRz', detractors, however you call them, may have a point to some extent. And that's a big no no.

Another exemple, would be the DCU vs MCU petty fanwars ig.
I think I've watched a video about it. It was pretty interesting.

This thread really went from Naruto's parenting to DCU...