My own belief about why so many people didn’t want to believe Quirrell was Voldemort is that Eliezer is nearly incapable of writing characters that people actually dislike (perhaps due to, as mentioned: “make every character awesome,” “give characters understandable flaws drawn from real life”).
See also: Ferrer Maillol, a guy who literally orders the main(ish) character to be tortured and was still quite likable!
My own belief about why so many people didn’t want to believe Quirrell was Voldemort is that Eliezer is nearly incapable of writing characters that people actually dislike (perhaps due to, as mentioned: “make every character awesome,” “give characters understandable flaws drawn from real life”).
See also: Ferrer Maillol, a guy who literally orders the main(ish) character to be tortured and was still quite likable!