I don't think anyone in their right mind would claim they are rubbish, just that they can be bettered once you step out of the hifi arena.

They were of course fairly unique back in the 70's when they were launched. More efficient and capable of higher SPL's than the low colouration monitors used at the time, such as the Spendor BC1 and others, whilst  offering lower colouration than the Tannoys and JBL's used for high level monitoring.

All people are saying is that things have moved on in thirty years. Whilst the ATC's are credible, particularly if you like their flavour ( I find them slightly dense sounding in the midrange and lacking HF resolution in comparison with my references), it is like a red rag to a bull when someone claims they are the finest and most accurate monitors on the planet. They clearly are not.