I don't think they were saying that you were lazy for the way the community is run, nor do I think they were insinuating that you intentionally went out of your way to wrong them or cultivate an unjust environment out of malice. I think the issue many take with not making In Game Time mandatory stems from the fact that the unfiltered rankings use Time instead of IGT time determine placements. Using the default placement to determine placing gives some the impression that it is the most competitive method of determining who is the fastest runner, when in actuality it measures who beat it the fastest, which is subject to variables outside the runner's skill pertinent to the game, such as running on a cartridge or the age of hardware. It may be easier to just say you are more interested in measuring who beat the category the fastest rather than who is the fastest runner, and that factors outside of the game are points of interest runners should optimize in order to be competitive.
Is creating two different categories not an option then? Or even just requiring in game time for a run that is top 10 or whatever place you feel is high enough? It would help to build a competitive environment for those who want a really high placement while also avoiding giving certain runners an inherent advantage.
Wouldn't it make the most sense to use in game time for Individual Levels? It would be the most fair way to compete and it avoids some weird situations where the faster runner is placed lower on the leaderboard. An example is https://www.speedrun.com/ssbu/run/zxgnv38y vs https://www.speedrun.com/ssbu/run/yd69npxz. The first user was objectively faster but is placed at 5th instead of 3rd.