JLS and Olly Murs have done okay. I don't know who that person you were thinking of. James Arthur was just awful.
I wouldn't mind the X-Factor so much if it wasn't so gimmicky. The pantomime performance between the judges, the predictable song choices, the obligatory joke act every year, all the joke auditions... Plus many of them aren't great singers and there's nothing unique about them, like that Emily Middlemas was just a much worse Ellie Goulding. the winner's singles are nearly always atrocious with the cheesy and OTT choral bit towards the end (saying that I do like Alexandra Burke's version of Hallelujah, at least up until the choral bit at the end)