It’s laughable to suggest that any reveal of a Darth Jar Jar twist could have been met with applause rather than derision. Perhaps the theory also seems credible, then, because it fits with our collective impression of George Lucas as a borderline incompetent doofus who never truly understood what made his series great. Given that this impression was fed by the prequel trilogy in the first place (though we probably should have known from the start), “fixing” Jar Jar by making him evil simultaneously squares with our sense of Lucas as a screw-up and promises to undo the things that let us see him that way.
Jacob Brogan, “No, Jar Jar Binks Is Not an Evil Genius. But Here’s Why Some Star Wars Fans Love That Theory.”, Browbeat: Slate’s Culture Blog (2 November 2015) [http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/11/02/darth_jar_jar_theory_it_s_ridiculous_but_it_says_a_lot_about_how_star_wars.html]