I've seen, played and heard enough about them to tell anybody who tells me that they are thinking about buying one to go almost any other route they can find.
As for when I said "We are all just prejudiced against them" apparently your sarcasm meter is in need of new batteries.
LOOK FOR POSITIVE THINGS all you want. I'd suggest that if anyone you care to keep as a friend asks you what beginner guitar to buy that you "LOOK FOR POSITIVE THINGS" about any number of other less expensive and much better guitars.
If an Esteban ever did rival a Martin as you suggest I would indeed hear it if I was in the same room with it because I feel compelled to pick them up out of morbid curiousity if nothing else.
I guess if the three edited sentences that you posted were all that I told you then...yeah I guess that is kind of shakey. But when you consider that there you can't just go to a Guitar Center or any other local store to try one out then I think that ...ok...not "everyone" if you insist on being pedantic, hates them...but almost everyone who has come in to contact with one thinks they are rubbish then yes, I think there just may be a grain of truth. Two out of two for me were crap. I've heard similar numbers from many others. (BTW..I was looking for "everyone" in my original post and can't seem to find it.
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I'm thrilled that you got the 1 in 100 Estebans that apparently has held up. All I was asking is what kind of evidence you wanted to hear to confirm that warning people off of these pieces of junk was a good general policy.