I have never understood the animosity towards iLok. I like iLok for several reasons:
1. If you use an iLok USB Authorisation Key it makes licenses portable. You can easily use a single license on multiple computers.
2. For $30 a year you can purchase protection for your licenses from loss or theft.
If you've ever had a hard drive fail and lost installed licenses then you know what a hassle it can be to recover your licenses. This happened to me quite a few years ago and it took me many hours of email and phone calls, and some licenses I never recovered. Thankfully, I haven't had a massive hardware failure or loss or theft since I got my iLok USB, but if I did iLok will recover ALL of my iLok registered licenses in 24 hours. Plus, it protects the intellectual property of those who have worked hard to create. And in 10plus years I have never had a compatibility problem. It just works.
So, I have never understood the animosity towards iLok. It is a small added expense for greater peace of mind and ease of use. At least that's how I see it. YMMV