Venison has always seemed to be more "acceptable" in the UK than in the US.

Growing up on farms, both DH and I were used to at least some game meat. One reason so many people in the US don't care for it is that for way too many hunters, once they've got a deer, hunting is more of an opportunity to drink until everyone in their group has bagged their limit. Even though they gut the deer in the field they just throw it in the back of a truck where it sits until their hunting day is done, before finally taking it to be processed. Even if the temperatures are in the low 40's on hunting day, that means the carcass is still sitting in way too warm of a temperature, with the sun shining on it for hours and hours. In other words, it's not aging, it's actively spoiling. This is why so many people think that venison tastes "gamey". The carcass really needs to be thoroughly chilled as quickly as possible. I've had venison treated both ways, and the one that sits in the back of the pickup truck for hours.... well, there's a good reason they need use very strong marinades on that meat to hide the flavor. The one that is chilled as quickly as possible - that's a very good meat, no marinades necessary at all.

DD1 (a millennial) always called venison "meat without moo" when she was a kid.

She's lived and worked in the UK for more than a decade, and at some point it became too difficult for her to fit in time around her work schedule to go grocery shopping in person. So she ordered from one of the grocery stores that delivered (can't recall which one), and one time when she'd set up delivery for after she got home from work, they included a bunch of venison that she didn't order - there were a bunch of really nice venison steaks in the order. Thinking they'd accidentally put them in the wrong order, she called to ask about it - Turns out that when this particular store got to the end of their day and still had delivery orders to fill, they'd throw in close-dated meats for free. (a real boon to her budget!) That's when she started to really love venison.