You mean the one with the bulging eyes? That reaction is extremely condescending and most people use it to express contempt or annoyance when someone says something they don't agree with. It's basically a pseudo angry face reaction and that kind of negativity shouldn't be welcomed.
That's the wrong interpretation of that reaction if I ever heard one in my opinion. Like this
would convey more of what you are describing. Plus bulbagarden has very little reactions and weird ones at that so it's not too surprising some would have their meanings morph. On top of that without responding/replying how does one assume the meaning behind the reaction? If I said "Pikachu is yellow" and someone reacted with
all that's going to do is confuse me, if the person responds with "Obviously, are you colorblind?" then I could associate that reaction with "People think I'm disabled/dumb" but by itself?
At worst the only negative perception of that reaction is "I'm sorry what stupid or baffling thing did you say now? Did I read what you said right?"
Like if someone said "I ate a whole jar of mayonnaise with a spoon that I fished out of a sewer" that might be an appropriate for the "whaaaat!!!" reaction. Or "Pikachu evolves into Zekrom" would also apply.
I can't imagine this "contempt or annoyance" makng any sense especially since
these are reactions already.
Sure maybe people find it condescending and too negative but I personally would take that over any other negative reactions. At least because I get to see a hilarious "whaaaat" face, to me its just a funny reaction that's hilarious in most contexts, obviously not for every comnent but outside of infractions/bans nothing is stopping the laughing reaction from being used inappropriately. The point is any reaction would be inappropriate given a certain context. I don't think the solution is to "avoid it?" or whatever is being suggested.
But as I said we all have our opinions on reactions, this just mine, people have theirs. Plus I'm sure there are more mild emojis that work just as well it doesn't need to be the exact emoji for the reaction.
Sorry if my thoughts are jumbled, I'm doing this on a tablet which is hard to format differently if I posted a lot already.
I think it was a meme that transformed into an emoji. Its like the Pikachu face meme but more exaggerated.