It was one of, if not the, worst bits! That weapon was ridiculous!

I like you, I think you and I may share the same religion even, but you're totally out of your mind on this.

TR-8R is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to Star Wars.

... did some folks seriously dislike that character?

TR-8R, while masked, displayed more raw emotion in his minute on screen than several major characters (Leia, for instance). He was driven to his core by rage at his previous comrade's betrayal -- a simple blaster kill would not do!

Besides, I think there's evidence that lightsabers produce a pavlovian response in enemy combatants to engage in the honor of melee combat. (Later in the movie, Kylo Ren had no issues with using his force powers to throw Rey around, but went straight into a saber-only duel with Finn. He also held back his force abilities against Rey when she finally acquired the saber.)

Seriously, though, I think TR-8R's shout of "TRAITORR!", throwing down his gun, and bringing out his club is one of my favorite ~5 second snippets of the entire movie, perhaps next to the scene of stormtroopers "NOPE"ing away from Kylo Ren's tantrum.

Granted, I was a bit upset that TR-8R was dispatched, without honor, by that scruffy-looking smuggler (what's his name again?). How anticlimactic.

The first order probably made them resistant to lightsabers because kylo kept having baby tantrums and they wanted a defence if he ever decided to take it out on the troopers instead of the machines.

After the bickering between hux and kylo I could totally believe that these were commissioned by hux (just in case).

Are you guys being ironic in some way I don't get, or do you actually like that "character"?

Well part of it is the meme factor (imgur was full of this stuff for the whole week after the movie came out), but partially, yah. He was cooler than that Phasma character. "Now that you are a captain you can have modifications to your armor and weapons. Here we have an under barrel grenade launcher for you side arm, or perhaps we could modify your suit to amplify your own strength, or even a jet pack! We could also-""chrome." "...what." "I want Cherokee armor.""...but-" "CHROME! I WILL BE SHINY AND THEN SENPAI WILL NOTICE ME!" "...Of course captain."

It was one of, if not the, worst bits! That weapon was ridiculous!