Note the inherent creep factor some pokemon have.Mr. Mime gets a million BDSM-related jokes about it thanks to delia ketchum owning one, and Jynx got its appearance changed for racism.
As far as how cinderace comes off as more human-like than mr mime and jynx, it’s once again tied to the personality attached. I look at mr mime and i see a monster clown in design that could have any number of interpretations, such as trying to be a legitimate entertainer, or the snarky personality of the one in the detective pikachu movie, or doubling down on the creepy aspect to mess with people like ghost types are often said to do.
Jynx… is honestly more of a problem overall than modern starters, having the set-in-stone dancer personality, the humanoid body shape, and the bonus feature of retconned racism. It got its appearance changed and was more or less swept under the rug, existing largely as a mediocre playthrough ice type in older games and a mon that lorelei owns and little else. It doesn’t have the front-and-center mascot nature a starter does.
And even then, it’s not entirely that human-like pokemon are the main problem. They’re generally not well received, sure, but the main problem with mons like inceneroar and cinderace is that its the starter being taken too far in the humanoid direction. Its meant to be like your character’s first pet, not jim from accounting.
Humanoid starter designs need to work harder i. The cool factor to get a pass on the departure from the baseline. Blaziken piggybacked quite well off of melee’s captain falcon. Delphox and decidueye made the cut with the magic gimmick and the non-human traits, respectively. Cinderace just barely toes the line with benefits like its gigantimax form. Incineroar and inteleon are far too goofy-looking to make the cut.