Well you're post is one of the hardest question ever I think.
If the people you played Bounce to are in the same age as you it's no wonder for me that they're complaining about it because they had a different taste of music. Kids today listen to bands like P.O.D, puddle of mudd, korn and all that nu-metal shit. For them Bon Jovi is just a soft-rock band which make songs for females. And it's not surprising that they have this opinion: you just have to look at a BJ concert you'll see 20 rows of screaming females that you think you are at the concert of a ****in' boy-band.
Then you'll have to see at the most succesful BJ singles in the last few jears: Except IML only ballads(Always,This ain't a love song, Bed of Roses). Singles like Hey God, OWN or Dry County didn't sold that much so the public doesn't notice the hard-rock part of BJ, only the "heartbreaking,get the girls screaming"-ballad part.
I have no answer why they don't like IML. I get mostly positive reactions about IML(but you're friends are right,the lyrics are very simple and superficial).

So don't worry about it so much. People are stupid. in the moment BJ release "Hook me up" everybody will like them again.