I quite liked them as well. Made them very readable even in small sizes.
But then again, I also loved the Android's old blob emojis[0]. Some specific ones were weird but mostly I really liked the amount of personality and movement they were able to express. But as far as I've been able to tell, most people seemed to hate them, for whatever reason.
Most people I know really enjoyed the blobs too. I never bought Google's justification for the redesign, and I don't think they ever published hard data about it.
But then again, I also loved the Android's old blob emojis[0]. Some specific ones were weird but mostly I really liked the amount of personality and movement they were able to express. But as far as I've been able to tell, most people seemed to hate them, for whatever reason.
[0]: https://emojipedia.org/google/android-6.0.1