Why teams issue the instruction at all
A team funds and fields two cars, and it is entitled, within the rules, to decide that the collective outcome matters more than which of its own drivers crosses the line first on a given day. Team orders are the practical expression of that entitlement, usually issued when letting two teammates race each other risks contact, tyre damage or lost points that neither driver individually would choose to risk.
Why fans react so strongly
The discomfort around team orders tends to spike when the drivers involved are genuinely close in the championship, because the instruction then looks like it is deciding a title rather than protecting a routine result. Racing is prized partly because it appears to settle questions on merit in the moment, and an instruction that overrides that appearance, even for defensible reasons, unsettles that expectation.
What softens the reaction
Teams that explain their reasoning clearly, and apply it consistently rather than selectively, tend to face less lasting criticism than teams that appear to invent a rationale after the fact. This suggests the objection is less to team orders existing at all, which most observers accept as inevitable, and more to occasions where the reasoning seems opportunistic rather than principled.