Illmatic loving cornballs existed and yes, a lot of people fukked with IWW but folks may be simplifying things a bit. Were Stretch and Bobbito cornballs? Most of the shyt they were playing in 96 was street shyt, hard shyt etc…I’m not sure if they ever dissed IWW outright but they barely played tracks on their shows. The idea that IWW was more commercial was not a sentiment only held by cornballs or haters. Black Girl Lost alone lol (featuring Ki-C and JoJo). Watch Dem nikkas beat. Even just having a single women fukked with. Compared to more "street" albums that year from MOP, Mobb Deep, Heltah Skelta, Jeru etc.
End of the day it was a great album. But let's not pretend like Steve Stoute wasn't trying to make a hit album (and succeeded).