I don't know if I ever said this before, but one of my most steadfast believes with Bionicle is that you cannot put into traditional categories of "objectively good" or "objectively bad". Not just because Bionicle itself is all over the place qualitywise with very high peaks and abysmally low lowpoints, but also because of what Bionicle fundamentally is. A toyline.

Sure, there have been a lot of toylines that have their own stories just look at Transformers or Masters of The Universe instance. But a core difference between those and Bionicle is that most storydriven toylines have the story and toys be fundamentally separate. Even if the toys were made first and the story just exists to sell toys, the story still exists as a separate entity with little connection to the toys. The toys mainly exist as to be memorabilia of characters the kids can recreate the plot with rather than having a concrete purpose.

Meanwhile with Bionicle it being a toyline is a large part of its identity largely thanks to it being a Lego product. Legos entire brand is all about creativity, to let kids come up with their own ideas with imagination as the only limit. Sure, they do have themed sets but the themes have always been more of a suggestion than a demand. And this mindset applies to Bionicle as well. Bionicle is ultimately a creative sandbox, a springboard that gives the base concept and set up kids can build their own adventures around.

And heck this translates to not just kids but even teens and adults. As the audience got older they got to affect the story more what with those MOC contests, story contests and what not. Not to mention, a lot of the canonization Greg got critiqued for were less his ideas and more kids headcanons he just gave a seal of approval (because lbr at some point we fans clearly cared more about the worldbuilding than Greg ever did). And then there's all the stuff we are now doing as community, with all our fanfics, projects and headcanons to expand on or play with this world and characters we all love so much.

Because sandboxyness and creativity is a major aspect of Bionicle's identity, it cannot be judged as a traditional story. Trying to judge Bionicle as a traditional story that has a "set" beginning, middle and end removes a huge aspect of what makes Bionicle work as is. Yes, you can (and should) critique the "canonical" story, but judging Bionicle from that alone isn't smart. It'd be missing the forest for the trees essentially.