I agree that it was a shitty default configuration/decision, but uninstalling Amazon was as trivial as you could possibly get, so I'm not really concerned about that.
I wouldn't say they all hate Ubuntu. They just don't prefer it.
Speaking for myself, I think it has a fine core, and recommend the Gnome Remix to most people looking to get into Linux. I just don't really like Unity (mostly because it feels really slow every time I use it), and they're not really being excellent to the rest of the Linux community.
I feel (and I said this recently in this same post) that if they focused on one thing, and stopped trying to do ridiculous and unnecessary things (like Ubuntu for Phones, and Ubuntu for TVs, and even Mir), Ubuntu could return to the nice, quality product it was.
My second favorite desktop setup was with 10.04 and 10.10, the switch to Unity is what ultimately pushed me away from Ubuntu.