After using Windows 8 for a while and being forced to learn how it works, I think I actually prefer the Win8 start menu to Win7.
On 7, the "Recently used" section would be cluttered full of crap that I only ever used once. The "All Programs" section would be wide enough to cover half the screen after just a year or two of regular use (I actually do use that many programs regularly enough to justify keeping them), making it a pain to find anything (the search feature often didn't work as advertised). Software from the same company would often create two or even more seperate folders. For example, I ended up with three folders for EA games: one for C&C Generals, one for the Godfather and one for the Harry Potter games, making organization even harder. There were broken links all over the place, even when I uninstalled a program from the Control Panel. Programs that I installed weeks ago would be permanently flagged as "newly installed", so every bit of the Start Menu was striped orange and white like bloody candy corn.
On Win8 (once you clear out all the bloatware and predefined stuff), the start menu is like a second desktop so that your actual desktop doesn't get too cluttered. Nothing gets added to it except stuff that I put there myself, and I can put it all into categories instead of having a million nested folders that I have to sort out. It's nice and big and visual, so I can use it without having to squint at the screen. If there's something I want to be on the Start Menu, I add it, and if I don't want it to be there then I can remove it and it will never bother me again. No more crap getting automatically added, no more broken links, no more buggy search feature or permanent "newly installed" programs. I haven't missed a single "feature" from the classic Start Menu, to be honest. I really don't see what the hate is all about, except that it might be a bit awkward to use with non-touch devices.