Hate is a hard word. I honestly don't hate anything about this hobby. That said, the trend as I see it is moving more and more towards scale sized locomotives and rolling stock. A 4x8 is just not conducive to operating the majority of my collection.
For post war traditional sized sets, a 4x8 layout is a perfect starting point. The arched fascia on my attic layout started out as design for a 7x11 layout.
Just my $0.02