When HBO Max became Max, I was actually pretty chill about it. Certain friends, of course, still bemoaned the mashup of HBO Max and the popular Discovery Plus content into the three-letter mononym. They yelled that WBD was stepping on the HBO brand and legacy, while I couldn't really be bothered to get upset.
But now that it's here, I've had time to play around with Max. (I even tried to enjoy The Idol, which was a failing effort.) I've agreed with some of the most frequently-seen complaints I've heard about Max. Yes, the decision to file writers and directors into the "creators" label shows a lack of care for the creative process. Yes, having every show that begins with "The" listed at T in alphabetically-sorted views is silly.
