Woah! I always had a strange love for those minifigs, got my first few last Christmas when I bought the Avenger Mothership set. In my opinion, the minifigs are awesome, great aliens with some great parts, the start to minifigs with loads of detailed printing (Which has been agreed by most to be a good thing).
Also, though the pieces are very large, I find them very useful, especially when considered that the recent surge of really small pieces you can use on the BURPs of the UFO theme if you're creative enough.
Maybe the controversy is just that they were the start of the decline of the Space theme. (Unless you loved Insectoids as much as me )