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Authors don't dislike being tagged in negative reviews because we can't take criticism. We dislike it because you're coming into our virtual living rooms to call us assholes when the social contract says we can't reply.
"Don't argue with reviewers" is an authorial commandment, and the reason I avoid, say, Goodreads, where people will two-star a book because I got my cats from a breeder instead of a shelter.
If I swing by Goodreads and tell everyone who's ever posted a negative review that they're ugly and stupid and smell like farts, guess what? I'M AN ASSHOLE!
But if those people start tweeting their reviews at me, forcing me to see them, and I say to specific individuals "please stop", again, I'm somehow an asshole.
(The attitude of authors never engage can be confining, but it exists for good reasons, as we had some examples of devastatingly bad authorial behavior before we set some community standards.)
Even a frowny face or a "please don't do this" can result in cries of author behaving badly, and then you get a social media pile on to go with the sting of having just been called a worthless hack.
So silence becomes your only defense, and when the topic comes up again, you get a round of "can't take the heat?"
I take plenty of heat. I see so many bad reviews, some of which are clearly written to be hurtful. Did you know that my fatness makes me a worse writer? At least one reviewer does!
But if I didn't invite you into my living room, and can't throw you out for calling my mother a whore, please don't invite yourself.
Tagging someone directly invites them to the conversation. If you don't want authors popping up to go "oh yeah? You, too, asshole," why invite us?
