The characters were supposed to start off annoying, and mature in Shippuuden. Unfortunately they put so much filler into Part 1 (starting with huge half-episode flashbacks of the episode before, then moving onto filler material and episodes, then the entire 3-4 series of the stuff) it lasted forever and a day, instead of like a year. So people see it as the be all and end all of the series, and not just the first part.