I don't mind it. With SF you've got to remember they've been updating and extending the same live platform for over ten years. It's amazing that it's as cohesive as it is.
My wife, who is a sales director, loves SalesForce. Maybe programmers aren't their target market?
Nope, but they are required if you want to do anything on it that's custom. And Apex as a platform is a nightmare to work with.
For all their revenue, they almost never turned a profit. They are popular but I wouldn't call it successful in business sense.
I can attribute this one to developers having to interact with sales force on behalf of their bosses. Hard to refuse usin a technology if your boss tells you you need to support it.