THIS! It's disappointing that even posters on PWO who should know better sometimes can't grasp this nuance.
The first TNA PPV was fairly decent and pretty well-received (much of that was optimism more than anything else). I ordered it, and while I didn't think it was PPV-quality, I thought it was fine as a pilot and weekly TV episode. The second week, which I didn't order because it was taped, was praised for "amazing workrate" (whether that was ever true at the time or still holds up today, I wouldn't know). After that, there were various ups and downs but people still had hope early on.
AEW is obviously in a much better situation, so it wasn't a clean comparison by any means, but that doesn't mean there aren't lessons to be learned from TNA's mistakes.