| I certainly understand why people don't enjoy the game. It can drag on too long, the first half is pretty random and the second half can be one-sided.
On the other hand, I see why people love the game. In my eyes, it is more a game you play to experience than play to win. Knowing going in that the game will probably not be balanced is the best mindset to have. Heck, you might get lucky and have it tilt towards you in your favor.
What it does very well is create vivid images in the players' heads about what is going on and that is why I think it is so popular. My game group still talks about the time the demon threw my guy into the chasm or when we all hid in the room thinking we were safe from the blobs when they suddenly sprinted in and killed us all. That is the appeal of the game and why it overcomes its warts for some people.
As for the counters, the Boardgame Geek page for the game has an excellent way to sort all the counters so that when a particular Haunt comes up it only takes us ten seconds to grab all the counters we need.
So I undestand why some don't like the game and I equally understand why people love it. I'm neutral about the game but anything that gets people to play more boardgames is good as far as I'm concerned (except Munchkin;-)). | 
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