Ive only got ten years under my belt, but I don't think I have ever had to compile a driver! perhaps a few times in Arch, although it would be an AUR thing and hardly and intensive manual process. But certainly not in debian-based stuff. I dont even understand what it would be like to have the bad experiences people do with it.

I can only assume its hardware disparity. I never have much money so I always get older cheaper hardware I can afford, where support has most likely had time to mature. Perhaps people with these negative impressions of Linux are trying to install distros on newer, bleeding edge stuff?