I think everyone who thought twitter was bad/hated it just really used it the wrong way.
All you had to do was follow specific accounts akin to your interest (and probably avoid reading comments) and it was fab. That was the intended use anyway until they started forcing more algorithmic content you didn't ask for into a new 'home' feed.
It was a fantastic tool for keeping up to date with things you are interested in and there was nothing else like it, still isn't to that scale.
If you were browsing trending sections and engaging in comment threads, then you were always going to have a bad time and get bullshit shoved into your face.
Twitter was a great space for breaking news, official alerts like weather, earthquakes and tsunamis, for developing election day tallies.
The "you mean Grimes left the king of SpaceX?" manchild broke all that.