Why so much Cliff Burton's "hate"?

[Sonic]

I wouldn't say I've seen a lot of hate for Cliff. I dig his playing and so do a lot of other metal heads. Solid albums.

 

[JÄGER]

Metallica while good during the first 3 album went downhill very very fast. If it wasn't for Cliff it wouldn't have been interesting at all to me like most 70's 80's metal.

My biggest complain again Cliff is he started that put some overdrive/distortion/fuzz on the bass and let's it totally disapear from the mix !!! Between that and the dreaded "follow the guitar" there is no chance you can hear the bass nor does it help seeing metal bass as a legitimate art. Nowaday you have many bass player who use fretless without that dreaded overdrive/distortion/fuzz and doesn,t follow the guitar !!! finally something interesting.

I don’t think it was his fault he was cut from the mix, and he didn’t play the same thing as the guitar

 

[Bass Growler]

I agree with Infamouswildcat. If anything, that drive made it sit in the mix really well.
Listen to the bass only versions on youtube, and then go back to the full song. Then all of a sudden everything makes sense. Cliff made Metallica sound great. He was a real sound visionaire.