How did nitrous get such a bad rep...?

Here's my take on nitrous, and this is from street racing back in the late 70s. It was just finding its way into street racing and wasn't as refined as it is today..
I don't think most guys new what to do with it and of course some did. I remember a little Vega wagon in the St. Louis area that was king of the street back then. Mid 12s on motor and low 10s on the bottle. I had a 69 Dart that had a 440 , auto and 488 gears. It ran 12. Os ,no bottle. Never got beat on the street. But from going to the track I new who not to race on the street. Anyway, guys that had nitrous would always lie and say , the bottle was empty or wouldn't use it or some BS. Guys would call me out for a race and crawl all over my car looking for nitrous, and they wouldn't use their's. I would tell them, if you got it you better use it. Non nitrous guys thought of nitrous guys as lying cheaters.