FF7 and FF8 are both great games (FF6 as well).
I am not sure how people can dislike FF8, the game offered so much richness and detail not seen in an RPG before it. There was just a lot more to it, and a lot of options for going about doing it. I am thinking that people who say they dislike it actually never played it before; either that or they tried to play by going through ignoring any tutorials, and many gameplay features; leveling up (ignoring junctioning, AP skills, and refining) and got stuck.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.