Tbh, I wouldn’t call England the ‘most hated’ character. He surely receives a lot of (often, grossly exaggerated) critics, but on the other hand, there are also a lot of fans who like him and are ready to defend him, evidencing his positive sides. Austria instead, for example, receives hardly anything else than hate. Some critics are fair, but many very exaggerated. I have a hard time finding posts/fics depicting him in a positive light. Maybe it’s just the corner I lurk in though.

I think that’s it. To do
my characterization posts, I have to pile through all the little cliques and
corners in the English-speaking fandom. I have seen more anti-England blogs
than I have for any other character; he’s also one of the most popular
characters. It’s just basic numbers, the more blogs there are on a character,
the more negative ones there are going to be. Since England is involved in a
ton of ships, that also reels in a lot of controversy.

Likewise, I didn’t only
say he was the most hated. I also mentioned that he’s one of the most contested
characters too, which fits in with what you said regarding how people both like
and dislike him.

This is how I think of
it: When you think of Hetalia, do you think of Austria? Is Austria the face of
the fandom? Or what about the memes? Why do all the old memes mock England more
than any other character (e.g., the bacon eyebrows, the googly eyes, etc lmao)?
Obviously, England isn’t the only face of the fandom.

I disagree. While
Austria isn’t as popular as England, I would say he gets an even balance of
positive and negative depictions (similar to England minus the popularity).
There are those who spin the crude characterizations from the Chibitalia series
and then there are those who ship him with Hungary or Prussia, for the most part. Some of my favourite
fics in the fandom are AusHun oriented.