In general, I feel like it is in BYU fans' DNA to complain more about defense and give the offense too much leeway, perhaps due to history of strong offenses. Whereas Utah fans do the opposite since historically the defense has been stronger.

I suspect BYU fans know this, but the Beck to Harline was a similar situation, because Kyle had played a stronger team very close for almost the whole game, (that BYU team was way better than Utah), using his "Circus Defense" where he dropped 10 and only had Steve Fifita rushing and it had worked really well up to that point. Except on the last play of the game where Beck had what seemed like forever to find someone open and Utah couldn't get any pressure on him. I don't remember much backlash towards Kyle after the fact, even though dropping back 10 is on paper much dumber than dropping back 8, because Utah fans in general trust all of Kyle's decision about the defense. Now, when Kyle makes an offensive decision like when to run vs. pass, you can bet the farm that Ute fans will be all over him because he just doesn't have much credibility there.

Of course coaching and scheme matter, but as you point out there is no perfect answer. Everyone hates the prevent defense until it costs them a game; I wonder how Tennessee fans feel about their defense when their over aggressiveness gave BYU a chance to tie it up and win because they didn't have any guys back?