Re:Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take ...
by MauranKilom on Thursday February 18, 2021 @05:51AM
(#26178343)
As a non-native speaker, my understanding of "notorious" so far has been what you described as the neutral form. However, to me, it does have a slight connotation of obsession or "doing it so much as to be annoying".
I am obviously not an authoritative source on how words are understood, but just wanted to add this data point.
Using it with an adjective to clarify the meaning here is fine.