Sorry Chuck, it wasn't that at all. There's no way I'm in favour of making life difficult just for the sake of it.
It's their appalling handling I was alluding to - soggy and ineffective ailerons in particular, and poor control co-ordination, which makes them uninspiring to fly. And they are more than a tad characterless. No, they are boring (compared to, say, a Cub, which could never be boring).
You know, you're climbing out in a 172 on a gusty day, a wing goes down in a gust, so you immediately apply aileron and co-ordinated rudder to level the wings and - not much happens. Then slowly the aeroplane responds (late and laggardly), but by then another gust has altered things and really you are a bit of a passenger since the aeroplane deprives you of fast and crisp controls you need to be master of the situation.
There's really no reason they should be like that. Even acepting their designers never intended them to be flown for just the joy of flying, but rather that they be stolid workhorses, there is no reason they couldn 't be nice to fly as well.
SSD