When did Diamonds Are Forever become as disliked as it is now?

Yesterday, I was surprised to learn that Diamonds Are Forever, which I have constantly seen considered a disappointment by the fanbase for the last 20 years, was not actually seen like that upon its release. I had always heard it described as something of a failure at the box office, which I attributed to the franchise cooling off after the lukewarm reception OHMSS had gotten. It made very good money, however. Not only that, the contemporary reviews of DAF were pretty good as well, with Connery's performance earning a decent amount of praise.

Now, I know that OHMSS, while poorly received, has grown massively in praise over the years and is now in any fan's top 5 list of the films. I didn't know, however, that DAF inversely *lost* a lot of the positive reviews it once apparently garnered. While no doubt hilarious and containing much darker undertones than its reputation suggests, I have to agree with the majority that DAF is just too tonally inconsistent and overly campy to be a good conclusion to the Blofeld Trilogy. The special effects were unbelievably bad (and are often wrongly attributed to be caused by Connery's salary causing budget cuts, though I found this wasn't exactly the case) and Connery, though much more engaged and game here than he was during the personal hell he went through while filming YOLT, IMO he still looks bored with the role and it can be distracting sometimes. It's especially noticeable in the scene in Willard Whyte's office when they reveal Blofeld's laser. The good elements are there (Casino-era Las Vegas, the aforementioned humor and horror they incorporated, Connery's engaging moments where he becomes James Bond again, and of course, John Barry with one of my favorite scores in film history) and I think people have been a bit too hard on Jill St. John for her performance, but it just doesn't stand up next to Connery's other entries. It's a below average 007 movie IMO.

While my opinion seems to be the consensus now among the fans, I have to wonder when and how DAF and OHMSS swapped reputations, right down to me often hearing that DAF was a box office disappointment. I've been on different James Bond message boards for 20 years now and it seems like the general opinion of the two films has been like this the whole time.

Did it happen in the '80s? TV airings of the films on ABC were at their peak around then. They were also being released on VHS for the first time about then, as the VCR became more and more popular as a household item. For what it's worth, I watched a copy of the original DAF release on VHS, and my god is the quality fucking awful. Maybe that swayed people.

Would love to hear from the rest of the fans to see if anyone else is curious about this too. Do any of you guys remember when the shift in opinion happened?