Big Tech, Mainstream Media, FBI, the Deep State, and every Democrat politician claimed that laptop was fake for 3.5 years. Sure, lots of them knew it was a lie, but the majority of the actual public was completely hoodwinked, because they hadn't yet realized there was this big left-wing cabal of power conspiring to lie as much as it takes to push the left-wing narratives.
Didnt people dismiss it initially, then change tune once it was confirmed? All the liberal sides knew it existed, they were mostly focused on the fact that the prosecution was being incredibly focused, which was out of the norm for how cases like that are typically punished.
Nobody ever cared that Biden's son was a crackhead. That wasn't the scandal. The scandal was the censorship and gas-lighting that was done against conservatives by all powerful democrats (FBI, MSM, Gov't, Big Tech, Universities). The gas-lighting has gone on for over a decade ranging from pee tapes, horse-meds, bleach drinking, border is secure, Biden sharp as a tack, Kamala in favor of Border walls, and 100s of other lies for a decade.
It was definitely real, it was mostly seen as a politicized fight.