The only issues I have are the proponents of abstract art doing 2 things:
(1) Presenting abstract art as a worthier pursuit than illustration, as if somehow abstract art is harder or more unique than all other art forms.
You can feel the vibe from fine arts professors who look down on illustration majors.
(2) As a subject of study, it feels like they're not willing to learn techniques like perspective, anatomy, etc.
There is no progress on actual learning. I think if you want to be truly creative, you should be willing to learn techniques and then seeing how to break them, so that you KNOW why something feels like X.
Instead it feels like they "look down" on it without ever trying it.
I think people have connected the "we are superior" vibe with the lack of development of skills and started to feel what this connection is called: pretentiousness.
Unfortunately people have also connected the actual art styles to that and dislike the works just because of the art style as well.