You are not alone, but you are not unopposed either. While you will find quite a few people think that FFVIII is not better than FFVII, you will be sparse to find people who think FFVIII is not better than FFIX. I personally like all of them, I think they're all great. If I had to choose I'd choose FFVIII, but that doesn't mean I think any are superior to the other. I'm not big on comparing Final Fantasy games (unless they are sequels, in which case it's a bit justified).