Young Sheldon Fans Find This Version of Sheldon Almost Unbearably Annoying
One character, different personalities.
Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) was one of the most beloved characters in The Big Bang Theory, despite being written and acted as an annoying, demanding, stubborn know-it-all with poor social skills, propensity to look down on everyone, and chronic inability to admit that he might conceivably have flaws or make errors.
Parsons and the scriptwriters managed to find a fine balance, where traits that would normally make a character insufferable, often even to the audience, instead made Sheldon funny and even endearing.
Even at Sheldon's worst moments, Parsons almost always managed to make his words come across as clueless, instead of mean.
However, as it seems, screenwriters of Young Shedlon, and Iain Armitage, who's playing the child version of the character, lost that balance at some point. They were unable to reproducing Parson's charm and comedic timing.
In their version of the character, Sheldon's quirks initially were fine, when he was a kid. Or, more likely, just seemed fine to the audience – people generally are willing to tolerate such behavior in a kid.
After all, much of Sheldon's behavior, even in his adult years can be rightfully described as childish, so his younger self was doomed to remain socially immature from the start. Yet, as he and his actor grew from kids to teenagers, more and more viewers could not help but be annoyed by his attitude, words and actions.
As one user complained recently in a fairly popular thread on /r/YoungSheldon:
"What was funny and precious and precocious about 8-year-old Sheldon has become forced and decidedly less funny in teenage Sheldon."
Circumstances outside of their control did not help, like teen Armitage's voice becoming deeper than Parson's voice. But those were just a cherry on top.
It seems that as Young Sheldon is going through its sixth season, more and more people watch it for characters other than Sheldon. Yet another reason why the series seems to be overstaying its welcome, and outliving its premise, and why ending it in near future is probably a good idea.