I agree that most people don't know why they dislike Sprint. Maybe it's the ugly yellow logo, but when I told my wife we were going to Sprint because of my company discount, she said she didn't like Sprint. I rolled my eyes because she said Sprint sucks just because of what other people were saying. "Other people" just talk too much about stuff they have no experience with.
Now that she's on Sprint with an EVO, she can't put it down. Now, I'm not saying all of the people that don't like Sprint have no experience with Sprint, but some of the people she was talking about had push to talk devices, which are on the iDEN network. They could be talking about that part of Sprint.
My coverage has been excellent, except at my apartment where I have 0 to 3 bars, but I live on the bottom floor in a valley like complex arrangement. Can't really blame Sprint for that because outside I get 4-6 almost everywhere I go.