The silly thing to me is that there were plenty of factual things to criticize, they just weren't as sensational and headline grabbing.

Part of it was also probably that Trump was known for bucking expectations when those expectations where based on "surely this is ludicrous to consider true", to the point that lots of things that would have previously been held back for more verification were allowed forward because things that used to stretch credulity no longer did.

That's not an excuse, just what I think is a partial explanation.