As a member of the Transformers fandom, there’s an ongoing debate in the community. And it is by no means isolated to this community, but it is the debate of inherent quality versus nostalgic quality. That is, is a given work of art (show, comic, toy, etc) good on its own merits or good merely as an artifact of nostalgia.
If we compare the original 1984 cartoon (‘Generation One’) to most of the modern shows, G1 pales in comparison. If we compare animation quality, the modern shows are vastly superior excepting a few episodes (and usually then, just specific sequences). Narrative, plot, and character elements are invariably subpar in the older works. Acting can go either way, depending on the show, the episode, the character, etc. This leads people to say things like ‘Gen-1 isn’t that good except for the nostalgia’.