This "the audience didn't know this was an X-men movie because it wasn't in the title" doesn't fly. Tell that to The Dark Knight. Tell that to Logan. Tell that to all the other films that are not known-properties that have been quite successful.
People know I hate Kinberg and what he's done to this franchise.
But by all intents and purposes he seems like a nice, harmless guy, who seems to get along with everyone. That's probably how he endears himself with his cast, and how he's able to climb up that corporate ladder. It's certainly not from his writing. It's been said he (along with Sigel and Ottman) has had to sit in on days when Singer went AWOL from the DOFP and especially the Apocalypse sets. The cast probably liked him in that director's chair on those days, just like they supposedly enjoyed their time for Dark Phoenix. Unfortunately for them, what they experience as a calm, give-and-take relationship with their director Kinberg on the set of Montreal doesn't always produce the best results.
Singer's problems started long before even on the X2 set when he would get into fights with DeSanto (from taking pain medication for this back) and Singer and Ottman have always had a love-hate relationship. I'll always bring up the time Singer had a particularly bad day, after taking medication, and got into a back-and-forth with DeSanto. The cast sided with Tom DeSanto, and Halle told Singer to "Kiss my black a$$!"
John seems to be the only one that can stand the guy long enough to work with him, and produce solid films like X2 and DOFP.
That too.
Meh. Sounds like another made-up excuse that doesn't line up with reality.