Gene Roddenberry hated it and tried to ruin it.
The conversation about and in regards to Gene Roddenberry, as he's often credited with being the visionary behind Star Trek, but most of his ideas ended up being terrible, and the concepts that the later eras of the franchise were built on, were built on in spite of him and despite his constant protests. For instance Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
He hated the film, the idea, and the overall concept. So much so that he actively went around to conventions ruining the end of the movie before it even came out. Talk about a toxic, and pathetically child-like move. It's not like his idea was some genius concept. His idea for a Star Trek sequel saw the Klingons going back in time to stop the John F. Kennedy assassination.
There are claims that the original film's poor paste and high costs were directly related to Roddenberry's behavior. So when Paramount removed him from the sequel and made him simply an "executive consultant", Roddenberry took that personally. He couldn't envision that someone else could do his story, his universe, more justice than he could. Yet, they did. And continue to do as well, if not better than him still to this day.