Interesting parallel there. I think the Phase 1 movies were individually pretty good, both as origin stories and stories in general, with the added bonus that they clearly were building up to something. I was never a big comic-book guy, but one of my best friends growing up was a huge Iron Man fan, and once we saw the first Iron Man movie, we were hooked. Our entire household has seen every MCU movie.
The What If...? stories don't really have that allure. True, they're basically unrelated stories which apparently will come together in some way, but they suffer IMO from the basic premise. What if Peggy Carter got the serum instead of Steve Rogers? Well, I know she didn't, so this is all hypothetical. What if T'Challa was Star Lord instead of Peter Quill. Well, again, he wasn't, so it kinda doesn't matter. What if all the Avengers were killed? Okay, now this is just stupid. What if Spider-Man and Tony Stark were secret lovers? What if The Incredible Hulk was allergic to cheese? What if Captain Marvel was a redhead? Why should I care about any of this?
If the stories themselves were at least moderately interesting, maybe I would've watched more. I do remember being somewhat intrigued when Dr. Strange actually interacted with The Watcher, which seemed to promise something more interesting to come, but next was Zombies! so fuck that.
Yeah yeah yeah, I'm bitching, and repeating myself, and I'm sure I'll eventually watch them all anyway.