I wouldn’t go as far as exaggerating that “NOBODY” enjoyed them. I think the issue is more that they locked “required” progression behind those systems. The borrowed power side of the argument.
I didn’t conceptually mind visions, Torghast, artifact weapons, etc. I’d even stretch to say I sometimes enjoyed a romp through Torghast with some of the power combinations I would get. My problem was that they punished me for not doing them by locking progression for other content behind doing them.
Had they made them optional progression routes, similar to how it seems delves are going to be, and not required to interact with them to do Keys and Raid, I think people would have enjoyed them much more. At least with delves, if I’m not in the mood, I’m not going to lose out on 1/2 my dps because I can’t get the new BiS legendary crafted that week.