IIRC in the first half hour they explicitly shit talk the execs wanting a sequel so it's quite obvious it's a middle finger to Warner bros.

The 2nd and 3rd ones are still fun, action-packed movies with ground-breaking effects. The Matrix set an impossibly high bar and it was not originally planned to be a sequel, let alone a trilogy. They also whipped them together much faster, so in that context, I think they did a great job.

Huh. Douglas Adams did something similar when his publisher kept pressuring him to make another Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book.
"STOP MAKING ME WRITE THESE"

unfortunately, yes.

Friend, let me save you a couple of hours and a lot of pain.

There are only 3.

I said I can respect it, not that it's good. It feels like a deliberate attempt to torpedo the revival of a series that really didn't need to be revived. That's what I can respect, not the movie on its own merits.