If you are being paid for your work and winning awards then you can have confidence in what you are doing. Of course people can have opinions, but that doesn't seem too constructive. If you don't know what their experience is then it's hard to tell how qualified they are to judge you. You can take the 'advice' however you want.
My creative endeavours have tended to be for fun and so far nobody has told me to stop. If another musician offers me advice then I am willing to listen. I've found the local music scene to be very supportive. I just started taking in-person drum lessons and the teacher immediately picked up on some things, but that is what I am paying them for.
I have put plenty of music online and have not really suffered from trolls so far. I'm sure there are nasty people out there who just like being negative.
In my professional field people seem pretty happy with what I do and that has kept me in paid work for years. That gives me some satisfaction.
RE: An unexpected splash of criticism