I think there are plenty of people who acknowledge that FF8 was the best, but a lot of people I have spoken to about it say it confused them at the start and they gave up on it too quickly. When it came out I must have been 9 years old and I remember the junction system confused the hell out me back then. I remember having to watch the tutorials over and over to remind myself how to do it. I've played through 7, 8 and 9 again over the last couple of years, as they're really cheap to download on the PS3, and reaffirmed my love for 8 in particular. In fact just talking about it now is making me want to start it again.
8 had parallel levelling, which was an immediate turn-off for me. Whenever you levelled up, so did the monsters. Ergo there was absolutely no point in levelling up. I might have enjoyed it had it not been for this. 9 and 7 were far better.