The reason it was predictable can be explained by examining two concepts used in public policy theory:

Pareto Improvement: A change that is an improvement for at least one person and no worse for any other.

Kaldor-Hicks Improvement: A change such that those that are made better off could hypothetically compensate those that are made worse off and lead to a Pareto-improving outcome.

It turns out that people aren't particularly thrilled with hypothetical compensation. Who could ever have imagined that?