And you're conviently forgetting that the British wanted to have full democracy in Hong Kong as they had in places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand but couldn't for fear of upsetting the balance with China.
It was the same thing with British Overseas passports. Britain wanted to issue full passports to Hong Kong citiezens but couldn't because China was heavily against it and so a compromise was sort.
Britain wouldn't make Hong Kong a full democracy and China would stick to one country two systems. That worked well until one side broke its promise.
The Chinese were obviously always opposed to British imperalism and it was a major victory to finally get HK back, including in HK, and even acknowledged in Taiwan. There is a large body of quite nationalistic and anti-European/British films in HK cinema from British times.
However, this does not mean that there is no domestic politics with pro and anti communist party, but daily life hasn't changed in HK except from the larger influx of "mainlanders".
The narrative on HK in the West is simplistic and, frankly a little racist. European imperialism and colonialism has long been rejected except somehow for the so great thing it did in HK, conveniently forgetting that the British never had any democracy in HK and acquired HK by pretty nasty means.