I agree with a lot of what you said, this in particular though I am indifferent on. People are different and that is going to extend into professional athletes, too. They are going to react differently on the ice, answer media questions differently, learn differently from the coaching staff, and certainly have different levels of shown emotions. I don't care too much if my guy is the fiery, vocal leader that you can see in game type or the quiet, lead by example, even keel type, as long as we've got a good mix.
Marner takes way too much heat for pretty much everything, but that is Leafs Nation. It was Willy for a while, Matthews has gotten it, Mo... if we're making a list we can go back my entire life and see just how many people take it needlessly here. It's too bad, I actually think the guy is likely far more mentally healthy than a lot of NHLers. He actually seems like he gets life and how hard it is to do great things in sport, but that doesn't play well with fans for a few reasons. Notably, anyone under 57 hasn't seen us win anything at all and people feel they need to take that out on a current guy. Secondly, they see a kid who they don't think gets it because it's not what they think it means to be a hockey player even though he's the one who actually does, in fact, get it.