I like what RID was trying to do but I think the aesthetic of the cartoon let it down.

My kids like the show but they hate the animation. They'd rather watch G1 as they feel the animation is better (!!!)...
They loved the Decepticon of the week; my son got the McDonalds Clampdown toy and has hardly put it down for the last 2 weeks. He loves mimicking Underbite which says to me he liked the characterisations.

So I think the tone of the show hit the right demographic but the presentation of the show and the lack of diversity in toys (ie not enough of the Decepticons) may have put people off.

The other problem my kids (especially my son) seemed to have is he didn't like Bumblebee being "leader". He wanted Optimus (that's probably my fault) or Rodimus or Ultra Magnus or Smokescreen (as was alluded to in TFP). He couldn't get his head around why Bumblebee was the leader... and he disliked Grimlock being green despite Grimlock being his favourite all-time Transformers character.

Admittedly since the Combiners Wars lines came out all my son wants is G1 because all his favourite toys are in that show and he LOVES he can have his big bad guys like Devastator and Menasor to re-enact the G1 episodes. So maybe Hasbro confused kids by having the 2 toy lines and only one show?

If they released a cartoon with imagery similar to the Devastation game my son would be all over it as he has been watching gameplay videos on youtube...