I can understand that.

Transformers designs are traditionally based off Japanese Mecha aesthetics, and it's understandable how the far more simplistic and 'cartoonishly' stylised designs of Animated can be off-putting to some people. I remember when Animated came out some people were calling it "Disneyformers."

Anime'd---> <---JLA'd!

But I remember FFN explaining it as being Hasbro's back-up incase the Bayformers failed. Animated was conceived around the same time as the first live action movie was meant to come out. And as we know the movie franchise made the Transformers look all super-complex and alien; so with Animated they jumped to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and made them look simplistic and cartoony. That way in the event that the 2007 TF movie turned out to be a complete failure, Hasbro could drop it like a hot potato and move on with Animated in a different direction. As it turned out of course, the live action movie franchise was very successful, so they went ahead and released Animated as a filler line.

If not for the live action movie franchise, Animated would have turned out very differently. The original concept for Animated was "Transformers: Heroes", and the designs there did look a LOT more orthodox; more like detailed Japanese Anime-Mecha stuff (you can check out some of the TF: Heroes concept sketches in the Animated Almanacs!). But now that both the movie and Animated franchises have enjoyed success (especially the former), Hasbro's decided to blend both aesthetics together; hence the hybrid moofie-cartoony aesthetics of TF Prime.