Part of this, to me anyway, is that the division has been so bad for most of this timeframe. That makes even the good years seem more average-ish. With maybe the exception of 2010, I never thought this team was better than the opponent they faced in the first round of the playoffs. That doesn't excuse them from not winning a single game (or even a series), but perhaps gives a more realistic view on all of the lost series. And in my mind, that trickles down to the regular season eventually. And my main complaint during most of the 2010s was that this team was treading water; neither improving nor getting worse and doing little in the way of trying to do anything about it. They only continued to do the same thing until the FO changed over.
It's not the team's fault that the division is what it is/was and it's certainly better to be the best of that division than not, but being good enough to win a crummy division and little else doesn't really make me feel all that better. Yes, it's more fun to watch winning baseball than not, but I guess that I set my sights a little higher than that.