It seems obvious that most of those negative comments on its appearance come from people who have never seen the original RD. No problem, there were plenty of detractors back in the day. The design isn't for everyone.
Yup, the look of the RD (and the weight!) was divisive even when they were introduced in the latish 70ies, Fender people hated them even where they had to admit that they didn't sound bad (or from a Fender player's viewpoint: better than anything Gibson had offered before). To me it's more of an "axe" in feel than the thin-bodied and sleek-necked TBird which feels elegant in one's hands, the RD is much more robust in handling and feel, more "take no prisoners". There are days when I like that.
But OTOH it is a design that has hardly been copied by others - they were introduced too late for Japanese pre-lawsuit copycats to flood the market, and until the Nirvana guy picked one up again, they were largely forgotten (or often mistaken as Thunderbirds, kind of like the Corsair/Hellcat conundrum).