Was Riester always bad?

You always hear that Riester contracts are not worth it and that you often end up with a miserable return or perhaps even get less than you paid in. When I read the reports, I sometimes get the impression that all of this came out as a surprise in the last few years, that it wasn't worth it. But isn't it the case that we could have seen how little it was worth when the contracts were signed? Did people just not look closely? Ode