I think people's views of older anime is of course tainted by nostalgia to some extent, but I think the issue is---more problematic now?
Like it used to be that not every anime was that great, but at its worst, it was just badly written, badly drawn, and childish. The shame of liking anime was limited to simply enjoying crappy shows, now it's like, it's not even about quality anymore, it's about worrying about what anime will make you look like a creep.
I know other fans don't necessarily affect me, but I do think it can put me off wanting to get into "fandoms" of a lot of these shows when there's a big subculture that seem to watch for the sexual aspects. Like I enjoy the Pokemon anime as a safe-show I like to watch passively for nostalgia sake, but now it's gotten to the point where I see some of the newer female character designs, and they've begun to move towards a more, well, design that seems popular among those types of fans, and it makes me wonder where the line is drawn between blaming the creators and blaming the consumers when characters are sexualized. And like I watched Inazuma Eleven recently, and that show apparently has a large subsection who enjoy it for its "shota" elements or whatever, and that really bugs me because I don't even know where the line is anymore. It's like I just can't find anime to watch anymore because I always worry what the intent behind the show is, what the fans are like, what kind of people are associated with it, etc. It's hard to enjoy anime anymore because I can't tell what is just mindless fun, and what is creepy pandering to the otaku.