There's a steep learning curve full of false summits, for sure, but once you grasp it, there is always an elegant way of solving a problem using it. Sometimes there's even a fast way!
Use of it in the wild, though, leaves a lot to be desired. The false summits lead people to write bad code, the bad code gives it a bad rep, the bad rep leads people to dislike using it, people's dislike leads to then writing bad code... and so on.
