People didn't like The Matrix because of the plot. The plot is too philosophical for people to understand. And no, while many of the references in the movie are now a part of hacker culture, you don't really need to be a 'hacker' or a tech savvy person in order to understand the plot of the movie. It does use technology as an 'excuse' to make a philosophical argument about modern life, but you don't need that knowledge in order to grasp the core concept.
However, it's way too abstract for regular people, tech or not, to understand.
People didn't like it for any of that. People liked the movie because of it's special effects and the fight scenes. Remember, this was very late 90s/super-early 2000s. Back then, Star Wars and Jurassic Park were the peak of special effects. The Matrix drastically revolutionized that. Some of the effects like the bullet time were new and left a huge impression on people. So much, it became a Y2K theme.
Machines using humans to produce energy while enslaving them inside a fake reality (or simulation of the late 20th century in the movie) is an analogy of politicians, companies and corporations doing the exact same thing by creating a 'fake' society to keep you entertained and make you feel rewarding for basically giving your whole life to them, for almost nothing in return. Nothing really significant. And instead of energy, they just make a profit out of us. They might not be machines, yet, but that's essentially the analogy.
