Maybe they are following Bay's example of corrupting the "heroic, noble, compassionate" Optimus Prime.
I remember how proud Peter Cullen was at each BotCon, playing Optimus Prime, even in the first movie - because of how pure a hero that character was, especially to kids. But then after Optimus was made out to be a callous, merciless, bloodthirsty Autobot in the second movie, Peter Cullen didn't boast about that at the following BotCon. It was so obvious that he had trouble claiming this title of a universally recognised "pure hero" after what Bay did to the character in TF2 (and TF3).
IDW are now doing the same with the "Autobot brand", making it difficult to show support for a side that should be the "hero" side.
At least Marvel would create renegade Autobot characters whenever they wanted to look at a scenario of "evil Autobots".
Before IDW, Bay and even Animated, I don't think it was ever an acceptable concept to have corrupted or elitist Autobots?