I thought so too (sane people avoid MTA buses) and have never actually ridden one but it turns that the people who do ride them generally like them a lot.

The advantages I've heard repeatedly (compared to taking a subway) are:

1) Convenient locations for pickup/dropoff ("it's right by my [office|apartment]")

2) Easy to get cross town

3) Cell phone works (as it's above ground and most of the subway doesn't have femtocells installs)

I rode an MTA bus for the first time this past weekend with 0 knowledge of the MTA in general and had a pretty positive experience. Why are people staying away?