You’re overestimating how much people watched controversial movies. Yes, people still went, but they still had relatively small audiences.
Major studios don’t publish niche movies anymore. There was a time where they put out like 1 maybe 2 major blockbusters a year and then had a 100 small “eh, it’s ok” movies along with a few experimental things. They don’t do that anymore. If it’s not a $100M movie, they’re not interested. This is in no small part because people don’t have the time or attention to give to something that isn’t knock-your-socks-off spectacular.
The nature of what we consider “controversial” has changed. 99% of “controversial” movies aren’t an unpopular take on something, they’re either deranged and delusional flights of fancy, OR they’re a perfectly normal take that contradicts someone’s delusional fantasy, and thus gets review bombed.
There’s 3 errors here.