I think BCH is a reasonable idea, block size is a problem with BTC and increasing it is fine even if it makes it less likely that normal users will run full nodes.

The scumminess of it comes from people like Roger Ver who peddle it as the "true" BTC. e.g., bitcoin.com is owned by the BCH folks and they have several intentionally misleading things there that try to re-brand BCH as BTC and BTC as BTC legacy or whatever.