Anything that makes programmers productive is a great tool. Angular 1.x definitely makes teams productive. It's one of the first web framework that comes with a specific testing framework. The clear separation between the DOM and the business logic makes apps more testable. And I could go for hours. Angular helps developers write complex apps faster and better.
Sure it isn't perfect, but show me something better with all the features AngularJs has.
AngularJS didn't became popular because it was from Google, a simple proof is the closure widget library nobody uses outside google. AngularJS became popular because it was obviously superior in term of developer experience.
Now your point about ng-model and scopes is valid.But it's not a angular problem, it's a javascript issue.Ultimately to understand angular you need to understand how javascript works, which many develpers don't.
Instead of saying "this thing is bad", Educate them. But I guess sensationalism drives more clicks.