I feel like this is a common sentiment: San Francisco is beautiful in the abstract, but disgusting in detail. I feel like this is a pretty common trope for most "grade A" cities—someone will always hate it, people who love it will always explain it away.

- NYC is expensive and has failing transportation, but people love the unparalleled cultural diversity and gritty tenacity of the city

- Paris is dirty and unfriendly, but the city's romance and character make it a great place to live

- London is expensive and out of touch, but its job opportunities and multiculturalism make it a better place to live

...and so on and so forth.

Someone's always going to dislike SF for a valid reason and someone's always going to hit you back with a valid reason why it's a good place. They're probably both correct.