IMO, most (all) of the haters are on forums. I've been riding e-bikes (both on and off road) for four years and have never had a negative interaction. The major problem in "the OC" is the superintendent of county parks has prohibited e-MTB's from all trails and many state parks prohibit too. This is incongruous to me since many parks are very sparsely populated especially during the week. There are at least 10 local areas where I encounter another rider (not a group, one rider) less than 20% of the time. The haters may have influenced prohibition in some areas.
The resultant is my LBS has had difficulty selling them.