I've noticed over the years that in the main pilots who like to rubbish the 146/RJ are almost without exception the ones who never flew it. I even heard one or two people express the opinion that it wasn't really a jet and that it shouldn't be counted as jet hours! Those that did fly it generally loved it. It wasn't really in competition with the 737 for legs over 90 minutes, it's forte was the shorter routes where the lower clinb & cruise performnce was not much of a handicap especially into shorter strips. As a local cityhopper it was pretty good but put it up against a 737 from London to Barcelona and it wasn't at its best. It was a delight to fly, once the engneers had got on top of it the reliability wasn't bad (lots had spent extended time laid up outdoors which does no aeroplane any good) and passengers loved them.
By contrast the 737 was a dog to fly but clearly in another class as a passenger-transporter which ultimately is what it is all about.
In it's niche the 146 was terrific, just a shame they didn't design the niche a bit (a whole lot) bigger.
Two VORs, one DME and an NDB developed your nav skills wonderfully, I found it the perfect intro to a career in airlines after a year on a single turbine and 3 months on the Do228.