Yes, I do like MOE. I enjoyed going through it back in the day. The only thing that disappointed me was the ending due to how anti-climactic was. I actually did like the battle with Lucreto itself though (reminded me of the tiny bit of combat at the end of KQ6.
Is the game perfect? No, but there were alot of things that made it charming adventure. It had alot of little nods to previous games in the series in way it incorporated legends, and such.
I found it more interesting than the Tomb Raider games of that era. I really dug the combination of Lara Croft style puzzles with classic inventory point and click puzzles as well. Its a shame we'll never see what Roberta would have done if she could have created a KQ9 with improved technology (that would have allowed for some of the ambitious ideas she had to cut from KQ8). Roberta btw would sometimes have to cut ideas from KQ games, and those ideas would be reincorporated into a later game. Like many of the puzzles and encoutners in KQ2 were actually ideas from KQ that were cut and she recycled the ideas in the sequel.
Infact I'd say that while I had some disappointment from the game on initial playing, the game has actually grown on me with time. Especially now that I'm older and can pick up on many of the subtle themes and messages hidden in the game's world. Infact there are alot of symbols hidden in the game's architecture, mosaics/hieroglyphics etc, that tie into the the game's use of mythology and christian lore. You can really tell that Roberta et al had really put alot of effort into creating the world.
Is MOE my favorite KQ? No, but there is to like about it if you understand what its trying to be.