I guess someone has to dislike them

I didn't have those but had something similar on my 'horrible hybrid', the bike that became the Sow's Ear. I always felt as though I wanted to straighten the hand positions out a bit ... mind you, the flat bars that replaced them are disliked for the same reason ... in the other direction. Interestingly, I've just fitted the Nitto Noodle (a drop bar) to my touring bike - these have a slight (about 5 degrees I think) backwards sweep on the flats and find that I know ride far more on the flats than I have ever done before (usually I hate it). That suggests to me that this shaped bar (the one shown) is on the right track, but the pull back needs to be a lot less extreme than it is.

Richard