Sorry, I never heard "the public" demanding a dark and dire sensibility for DC's stories. The Flash (TV series), Lois & Clark, Smallville, etc. all had diehard fan followings. The Nolan films were respected, yes, but anything other than those were roundly rejected by "the public" who complained about Superman killing people, depressing visuals and pretty much everything else since Nolan. People liked Wonder Woman because it finally went a bit lighter with callbacks to the 70's show. People liked the first Aquaman because of Jason Momoa's abs.
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
That's about it on what "the public" liked since Nolan. And I guess I'm not one of those "public" calling for a darker DC, because I never bothered to watch the Snyderverse, though I did see Wonder Woman (not as good as the 70's show though I liked Gal Gadot's homage to Lynda Carter), Aquaman (frothy and mostly boring), Black Adam (horrendous), Shazam (fun - really enjoyed it!) and The Flash (surprisingly laugh out loud enjoyed it in spite of Ezra Miller's awful personal behavior).
And lest you say that I'm therefore only a fan of the lighter side of comics, I'll note that I think the Marvel Netflix shows are some of the best TV I've ever seen and are far superior to anything Disney+ made and better than any Marvel releases since Endgame EXCEPT the brilliant No Way Home, which had a fair amount of angst and darkness, but also... hope and camaraderie. Which is probably the perfect combination in the morality tales that comic stories often tend to be.