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[The_Explorer]

For me, its probably actually Crusader Kings series. I was a bit wary of getting it at the time (CK2 back then) cause of all the DLC. Even though I had played EU4 before CK2 and both from the same dev, CK2 was/is a completely different game really, more RP/sims like.

Ended up being my favorite game from paradox, and the only grand strategy I still play from them. Though, I played for a day and went "this isn't like EU4 at all it sucks its so confusing and different", and then a few months later retried it and have more hours in it than EU4. Ended up playing it as a RP/sims (again) game instead of a conquest kinda EU4 style game, and that increased my enjoyment a lot.

Another one I thought I'd hate, to add a second. Is probably TheHunter Call of the Wild. I hate hunting in real life, don't even like seeing animals killed in games like WoW. But oddly enough, I like TheHunter. Mostly cause of the nature sounds and scenery more than anything though.

[EuchreJack]

It took me a while to get into the original Crusader Kings.
I've played over 1000 hours of Crusader Kings 2.

[Telgin]

I've got far more examples of the opposite, since I'm pretty choosey and very rarely buy a game without a lot of investigation work first.  A few examples turned out to be big disappointments despite that.

Anyway, the closest to an on-topic answer I can give is Stellaris.  I didn't expect to hate it, but a friend dragged me into buying it as part of some Paradox bundle a few years ago and play a multiplayer session with them.  I figured I'd do it once and probably never pick it up again, but the ability to customize the player empire so much really drew me back to it.  It's the only game like it that I know of, and I now have over 1700 hours in it.

[Robsoie]

Never bought anything i thought i would hate, as that would instead be definitively a reason to me to not buying something.
But demos i played i didn't expected to enjoy so much that i bought the game happened a bunch of time.

I think the biggest case to me was Operation Flashpoint. (the one from 2001)

I remember that old demo with the mission in which you're with a squad going to attack a village occupied by soviet soldiers but everything end (assuming you didn't died in the first minute of the assault anyways) into distaster when soviet tanks start rolling and the few survivors of your squads and the other ones that supported with so few AT missiles left have no way to survive and the only chance is to run the hell away to complete the mission if you're lucky, only to see your evac shot down by Shilkas.

The sheer immersion of the whole thing at the time was enough to convince me that was going to be the game i want to play , and indeed it was a good purchase as i played that game for nearly a decade ! (some very good expansions + so much mods/custom missions and campaigns and etc... that were made for it to enhance its replay value to beyond most replayable games)
And that "mission editor" that allowed to make your own battles, it was just fantastic.

[Frumple]

... probably Sudoku RPG? Not sure if expected to hate is the right framing, but I definitely wasn't expecting to like it all that much, bought it cheap on a lark wanting to see how they managed to design involved, basically, and my previous experiences with sudoku in general was largely somewhere between "meh" and "why am I interacting with this nonsense".

Ended up flawlessing the campaign and one of the hell boards over the course of about 35 hours of play. Not sure if I've been converted to sudoku in general, but I definitely ended up with more appreciation for the puzzles than I started playing the game with.

[nenjin]

I feel like people who gets roped into playing games with their friends run into this a lot.

I didn't think I'd *hate* it, but Valheim surprised me. I didn't think I'd connect with the art style or the gameplay. But it is beautiful and charming in its own way and it definitely gave me the sweats running through the forests in the dark with half its inhabitants chasing me.

[ChairmanPoo]

Ck2 for the same reason as OP.

Darkest Dungeon 2 started off very poorly but I love the game concept now

[MorleyDev]

Cyberpunk 2077. Got it after lots of the patches but still kept my expectations low. I now regard it as the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines of the 2020s. An amazingly ambitious game that launched in a horrific state.

[Stench Guzman]

An amazingly ambitious game that launched in a horrific state.

That also applies to No Man's Sky.

[MorleyDev]

That also applies to No Man's Sky.

Eh, I'd say the differene is NMS didn't launch in a broken state, it launched in a boring state. CP2077 was horribly glitchy at launch, but if it worked as intended it would have been pretty good already. NMS needed fun patched in later. Which is why I compare CP2077 to VTMB.

Plus VTMB and CP2077 are similar in more ways, being tabletop-derived character-driven RPGs and all.

[E. Albright]

"Hate" is perhaps a strong word, but I certainly didn't think I'd rack up hundreds of hours playing Satisfactory. I'm not sure* it'll have replay value unless it gets a lot more content between now and when it's "done", but it's surprised me with its ability to make me want to do operations-research-lite as a "game". It being rather pretty and having a nice world to explore certainly helped, but I doubt that would do it if not for the, well, satisfaction of making complex systems operate smoothly.

*As in, I really don't know - part of me is very convinced I could stand to do a playthrough where I'm a lot more deliberate and don't have industrial machinery built in open fields, or crazy spiderwebs of conveyor belts, even if I know how everything will end up and have a pretty good grasp of what all is in the world, and where.

[anexiledone]

Don't think I've bought a game I thought I'd hate lol

But gamepass has definitely had me checking out games I didn't think I'd care much for. Was surprised how much I enjoyed Vampire Survivors. Kept hearing people talk about it, and it just sounded so dumb. Gave it a try since it's on gamepass and put a ton of time into it lol

[lemon10]

"Hate" is perhaps a strong word, but I certainly didn't think I'd rack up hundreds of hours playing Satisfactory. I'm not sure* it'll have replay value unless it gets a lot more content between now and when it's "done", but it's surprised me with its ability to make me want to do operations-research-lite as a "game". It being rather pretty and having a nice world to explore certainly helped, but I doubt that would do it if not for the, well, satisfaction of making complex systems operate smoothly.

*As in, I really don't know - part of me is very convinced I could stand to do a playthrough where I'm a lot more deliberate and don't have industrial machinery built in open fields, or crazy spiderwebs of conveyor belts, even if I know how everything will end up and have a pretty good grasp of what all is in the world, and where.

If you liked Satisfactory enough to put so much time in it both Factiorio and Dyson Sphere Program are both very solid games of the same type with a few fundamental differences that make them different enough to be worth playing (or at least trying out) as well.

If you like the game enough it might be worth another playthrough (although I highly doubt that more content tacked on at the end of a hundred+ hour game will make it worth it if you don't feel like it already), but there are quite a few mods that might make it worth it even if your answer is no.
Most of them just add QOL stuff (eg. unlimited size blueprints), remove some stupid restrictions (let you upgrade zoop), or add OP things, but Satisfactory Plus (which I haven't tried) promises a complete overhaul, which might very well be worth a playthrough.
(E: And there are others that seem very solid for a second playthrough as well, such as one that adds a bunch of new optional recipes or another that simply randomizes ore purity and location).

*As in, I really don't know - part of me is very convinced I could stand to do a playthrough where I'm a lot more deliberate and don't have industrial machinery built in open fields, or crazy spiderwebs of conveyor belts

Heh, good luck with that, making a sphagetti free factory is a pain in the butt in a game of this magnitude.

[Il Palazzo]

I recently picked up Old World (slightly discounted on GoG summer sale) and it's been very much a positive surprise. 
I thought I was getting an uninspired Civ knock off, with some CK ideas thrown in (because I had a 4x itch I needed to scratch). But it's very much its own thing. It's pretty great. How nice to see a game whose many mechanics actually come together as a whole, and just - you know - make sense in the context.
Also, undo move button with no restrictions or questions asked. Why isn't this a mandatory feature in every game??

Published by Hooded Horse, btw. These guys seem to have a nose for good developers with interesting ideas.

[Folly]

If you liked Satisfactory enough to put so much time in it both Factiorio and Dyson Sphere Program are both very solid games of the same type with a few fundamental differences that make them different enough to be worth playing (or at least trying out) as well.

Also in this vein, Techtonica is launching in 2 weeks and looks very promising.