I have probably a cumulative 2000 hours between civilization 4, 5, and 6. I disliked each as they came out, I had played 3 briefly right before 4 was released. But after a few games in each they really grew on me, and moving back to the older versions just didn't slap the same way.
I'm sure 7 will be different in enough ways that people will initially hate it, and still spend dozens of hours playing it.
I've been playing Civ since the first release, and this is the pattern with all of them. The transition to hexagonal tiles was pretty weird at the time.