I’ve yet to come across any negativity towards my older bikes, but then I can’t say that I congregate with cyclists very often; I mostly just do my own thing. But to the extent that I’ve had interaction with people about my 1981 Bianchi, it’s been very positive. I get kudos for it pretty regularly. I rode it on a century last year and people seemed happy to see it. Though I’m sure some people thought it was pretty quaint. For me though it absolutely started as a budgetary thing. I looked at prices for decent road bikes and was astonished to find that the mid range stuff seems to begin around $1200. So I went on Craigslist, remembered my dad lusting after Bianchis when I was a kid and was very lucky to find one that afternoon. Altogether I spent about $400 on the bike and various upgrades. I’ve since rebuilt two Trek multitracks, and those are nice too for getting around town, going to the market, etc. Today was gorgeous here in Wisconsin and droves of people were out on bikes, and it looked like most of them were on rigid hybrids and mountain bikes from the 90s from what I can tell.
Maybe it's a regional thing, are people rude where you live?