I'm not concerned if you agree, you have your opinion 
But knowing our respective driving styles, I can see why you don't like it. For me it carrys corner speed quite well. Which if I understand correctly, is the complete opposite of your approach. (I think that's fair to say ?)
Wwd no worky.
I didn't have one for long, but take the stress out of the front wheels and its quite planted, I think anyway.
My issue is it wouldn't carry corner speed. I fould it impossible to predict where it would be in a corner, thus unpredictable, thus undrivable (safely).
Ours was the original one, I had the 2nd gen one when I left the bullet in France, and the 3rd gen as hire cars out here for the past 3 or 4 years. They are all the same.
When we got ours, we were really looking forward to it - everyone had said how great they were, so I was expecting it to be every bit as good at the Rover we had at the same time. It was slower, couldn't stop more than once, and couldn't do corners. And in the fact that the boot was far smaller than the Rover 25's. Horrible things.
As Kevin Wood elluded to, I think the reason everybody thinks they are great is that they are comparing it to the Escort. Its not comparable to the competition. I mean, even the Astra-G handles better.
But to anyone who has one long term, and has found it OK, I'm glad for you

. Certainly didn't work for Mrs TB and I - even she said that you couldn't tell how close to the kerb of white line it would be in the corners.
Shame, as with better handling, more robust brakes and a better engine, it has the potential to be a reasonable car.