How come people act like the Shadow-era (or at least Shadow The Hedgehog himself) is the moment Sonic The Hedgehog went darker and edgier, or at least tried to, when previous Sonic projects have gone into darker territory?

I mean, I get that Shadow is essentially a darker version of Sonic, but people seem to act like Sega were being/trying to be edgy by giving Shadow a gun, yet they have done things worse than give characters guns. In early Sonic projects, the robots that you have to destroy (Badniks) are innocent animals who have been turned this way, and in some versions of the story (Sonic SatAM, at least) it is said that while they have no control over themselves anymore, they are still aware of what they are being forced to do.

How is that less dark than giving a character a gun?