wow, i loved Yuffie, possibly my 2nd favorite character in FFVII right after Tiffa, i really don't get the hate for her... i mean her Materia stealing side-quest takes like only 30 minutes in a 100+ hour game (the timer always stops on 99:99"99 on me halfway through disk 3), i also write down who has what Materia before i ever get to Wutai, so putting it back only takes like a minute...
favorite and hated characters are completely subjective... for example i love Yuffie, Selphie, Rikku, Penello, Vanille, yet a large group of people act like they're the worst thing to happen to gaming... whereas a lot of people like Quina yet i can't believe how people are not seeing what i see clearly... completely subjective... we almost all agree about Cait Sith though (well, according to most polls anyway) ammirite?..