I never got the XY hate at all. They weren't hyper amazing, but they had better postgame than usual for the start of a generation, the region was fine, there were a good number of interesting loose threads to leave us waiting for a third version, and the balance changes were a godsend to competitive play. Hell, even Megas were pretty nice, since for everything that got a Mega that didn't need it (Scizor/Tyranitar/Lucario/Mewtwo/etc.), several things got it that really appreciated the boost in usefulness (Kanga, Aerodactyl, the Gen 1 starters, Aggron, etc.)

/vp/ was having fun, linking up with each other due to how stellar the online was, and friending each other for Friend Safari. They certainly weren't perfect (cutscene hell, characters were weak and forgettable, ingame was a joke unless you disabled EXP Share, writing was very variable in quailty, etc.), but they were in a better state than vanilla RS or DP.