Big fan projects get acknowledged by them all the time. SEGA more than ever is in touch with its fanbase. I doubt it's going to get 'trashed' by the community that has been well-aware of its flaws since 2008. They know that the Werehog is in the game, obviously. The majority of people (if not all the people) who want Unleashed ported to Steam know what they are getting into.
That doesn't negate the fact that Lost World was a mediocre trash fire that tried to copy Mario and had very little of it's own identity. You can argue you liked the game all you want. And like you said, they were aware of the scathing criticism that the game got. Lost World got mostly trashed yet they ported it to Steam two years later.
