So, turns out they never learned from DmC 2013
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Long answer.
Harley always had what was basically a rabid fanbase of BPDs that leaned hard on the DDlg fetish despite the fact the story it is based on is beyond domestic abuse wrapped up in a "I can fix him" fairytale, despite the fact that comics rarely straw from a status quo so in terms of a prime timeline Joker is never, ever going to be fixed as it would kill the possibility of future stories.
However alternate universe [AU] timelines and dimensions are more forgiving in this sense and Harley in particular benefited greatly from such things with the Injustice story by Tom Taylor, despite the fact the story starts with Harley helping Joker kill Lois Lane as well as Superman's unborn child leading Superman to kill Joker by punching his arm through the Joker's chest. Harley manages to avoid being killed for this, of course.
From this point until the first game there are 5 years of slow changes in various characters to where they get to in Injustice. Superman doesn't immediately take over the world and the Leaguers who side with him don't immediately fall into lockstep. Batman does however immediately stay the same because he's Batman.
In these 5 years Harley gets a lot of page/panel time and her interactions with Green Arrow for example slowly started endearing her to comic readers. Eventually after 5 years of those comics, more comics between Injustice 1 and Injustice 2, and depending if you want to really step outside AU canon the comics after Injustice 2 but not ones that lead to Injustice 3 then you get a long winding tale that ended up with Harley being somewhat liked, despite the fact she still helped kill a pregnant civilian who was the wife to the single most power being on the planet and carrying his unborn child at the time.
That is what DC and many others are trying to latch onto, the "goodwill" towards Injustice Harley but still with AU versions far more similar to the pre-Injustice versions that would still kill Lois Lane to mess with Superman because Joker wanted to do it.
But it doesn't work, because Injustice Harley isn't normal Harley, and even normal Harley isn't classic Harley anymore because after the popularity of Injustice there was a decision made to try and redeem Harley in some way and turn her into the DC version of Deadpool and by a fourth wall breaking quip machine, ignoring the fact that Deathstroke looks far more like Deadpool. For added meme points she's also now a lesbian with Poison Ivy so the whole "stick a chick in it and make her lame and gay" sounds true once more.
The end result is multiple attempts to try and push Harley on audiences but not any version they are probably used to so the landing never works.
Final note, Injustice by itself is worth reading but given how utterly dogshit DC is these days, as is Marvel, I don't recommend paying for their works, even their older back catalogues so sites like this are extremely useful for reading entire comic series.
Just make sure to use an adblocker.
I'd also like to add, Harley was a good character as a side-character.
And you're right that in the original animated versions it was easy to like her when she did periodically appear.
Now she suffers from the side-character-as-a-main-character syndrome, insofar that there wasn't enough there for her as a side-character to be a main character and be liked. She played well off the Joker as the less crazy one in the pairing, and garnered some sympathy for how he treated her in the DCAU; and the abusive relationship is what made her somewhat endearing, while her psychotic side and loyalty to Joker made her unpredictable and interesting... in small doses.
She is a bit like Booker from 21 Jump Street -- he was a cool character on that show, but he was not cool enough to warrant having his own show as the main character, which is why his solo spin-off failed.