Agree with you. People argued with you because you have a valid, important criticism. You are right, they are wrong.
The great thing about art is that it is subjective.
In working in scientific fields, you might have varying theories but they all are meant to describe an underlying truth that (if you are doing your job right) will approach the truth through peer review and 3rd party reproduction of results.
With art (including fiction writing) there is no objective measuring stick to gauge quality. Other than the basic nuts-and-bolts of proper grammar and spelling, anyway. And that lack of standardized measure is a good thing. I learn more from my fellow human beings when we disagree--to me learning about other people and about the world is what makes art worthwhile. If we all agree, that's boring. I would just stop reading entirely and find a different pursuit to spend my time. If I hate a story and someone else loves it, the story still has value to me in that I can try to understand why other people like it. That doesn't mean that they will convince me that I should like it, but it helps me gain perspective on other points of view, which is an invaluable result.
It can also help me gain insight into my own prejudices so that in the best case scenario I can learn to think fairly, or in the worst case at least understand where I cannot see things fairly and work around it. "Ghosts of New York" is a prime example of this. I had a strong, visceral, negative reaction to that story. Others liked it and had no such reaction. On further examination, I decided that the extent of my dislike was beyond what was rational for the story content. That hasn't changed the strength of my reaction, but I've come to the conclusion that the fault is in prejudices in my own perception rather than the story having no value. These prejudices still bother me becauase I still don't understand them to any degree. But I would rather be aware of them then unaware. In that way, even though I still hate that story with a passion deep in my gut, it has provided a valuable service in helping me understand myself better than I did before.
I should be writing this in a blog post...