I don't recall it being at all the way you describe. And the historical record bears me out and not your version.

For example, their numbers were much, much closer than Bernie's and Clinton's ever were. She and Obama were close most of the race.

The tone of Clinton's race was completely different from Sanders in its very fabric. Sanders' is predicated on corruption and innate badness of the system and banking and money in politics, and so it's fundamentally accusatory, cynical and conspiracy theorist in its construction of political reality. Clinton has a completely constructivist political platform based on strong policy, being a political pragmatist and strategist, and has clear political theories. Sanders' campaign is backed by, of the few people endorsing it, airheads and alienated outsiders. Clinton's is backed by hundreds/dozens of endorsing world experts. Because of the nature of Sanders' vacuous and negative campaign ideas, the campaigning of his support base is mostly about how evil his opponents are, so his supporters are fundamentally negative, contemptuous, unhealthy and dysfunctional in their interactions with other campaigns, which is why they're regarded as so ugly and terrible. There was no such dysfunction with Clinton's campaign.

The Obama supporters wanted Clinton to step aside for their glorious king, which she refused to do because she was the stronger candidate technically and her numbers were very close to his. It was like asking a stronger candidate for a job to step aside when the scoring is close and they have more skills, experience and awards, just because the other guy had much more flavorful impact on the interviewers.

I'm sorry but there's nothing similar in the two campaign seasons or campaigns. Yes, there are always bitter morons at the fringes shrieking at each other, and maybe that's the political space you do your analysis in. Politics has many, many pigeonholes. I would suggest and advise that, if you find yourself in a shallow negative place, and you can't see the substantive difference, that maybe you're focused on superficialities and should look for more meaning in political analysis.