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

Only experience with nitrous I have was in the early 2000s on a (GULP) BBC in a '68 camaro, but I will say...it was nice to have it run so mildly on the street, and be able to go fast at the track. Even as a nice driver it was still fun enough when the traffic lights turned green, but it wasn't like you had to be wary of unleashing 700 HP every time you throttled it on the street...That chebby did mid 12s without/ mid 10s all night long on the stuff, that motor lasted just fine. More involved to keep it tuned right but hey that's part of the fun, right? Most folks didn't seem to have a problem with it, mainly just a few guys that couldn't keep up after spending big bucks just to break into the high 10s. As far as any 'stigma', that was the real issue I think? "Hey I had this blah-blah built by whatever badass so-and-so and you come out here and beat me just beacuse you put a bottle of gigglegas in the trunk!?" Um, yep!