YES, I do think there is an issue in the Sonic community with downplaying Silver's abilities and social ineptitude, which is obviously him not knowing how to be around others, so therefore he is rude to brand new people, BUT by some acknowledging that, there becomes a cycle of viewing his characterization very black-and-white. Either he's kind and awkward, or he's isolated and harsh (in other words, flattening his character into extremes), which really sucks because we see characters similar to him in other forms of popular media that don't have the fandoms treating them like that (to the extent Silver does, imo).
The best way I could describe my own characterization of Silver is Armin Arlert from Attack on Titan.
Armin can be hesitant, overthink, struggles to assert himself and sometimes doesn’t know how to navigate people. But that same character can turn around and be brutally honest, manipulative when necessary and make decisions that hurt others if he believes it’s the right call. And the fandom doesn’t split that into “two versions” of him (from what I know)—they accept that it’s all just him.
That’s the part that feels missing with Silver. Because Silver’s social ineptitude shouldn’t just manifest as “cute awkwardness.” If anything, it should also show up as bluntness, miscommunication, coming off too strong or even being unintentionally rude—especially to people he doesn’t know. And at the same time, that doesn’t erase the fact that he’s empathetic, hopeful and genuinely wants to do good.
This is precisely how characters such as Armin are permitted to exist. From what I've seen in the fandom (which, take this with a grain of salt), they allow him to be emotionally charged when making a decision while utilizing his coldness against others when needed.
Meanwhile, with Silver, there’s this weird tendency to sanitize his awkwardness into something purely likable or push it to the opposite extreme and make him cold and detached—when really, the more accurate (and more interesting) version is somewhere in the middle, where those traits actively clash.
The issue isn’t that people acknowledge Silver’s awkwardness—it’s that they only allow it to manifest in ways that keep him likable to their own standard.
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