Oh I like them too! And yes I think Lightning is just fine as a character, I think the only problem people had with Lightning was that she seemed like she was trying to hearken maybe a tad bit too much back to Cloud or Squall, and thus some people felt she lacked an identity of her own. That or she got over shadowed by the personalities of the other party members like Fang, Snow, and Sazh.

I suppose it doesn't help that FF 13-2 actually moved away from Lightning being the protagonist and instead focused on her sister, Serah, and the then-new character Noel, and then only went back to Lightning for the next game with all the other controllable characters instead being side characters (I also remember people had mixed feelings about Hope reverting back to his teenage appearance rather than keeping the older look from 13-2).

As linear as FF13 was, I liked the places you got to visit, the combat's really not the "press A or X until you win" situation some people act like (many of the later battles in particular if you try and do that you will lose a lot), and the leveling system reminded me of FF10's sphere grid. I really liked 13-2's time travel plot and character development, my only major issue is some of the places you visit multiple times have barely any changes to them. And really I don't have many complaints about Lightning Returns, I like the new combat system and the more open world nature.