When used properly and well written, triggers are extremely useful; when used inappropiately they are awful; when written badly they are awful; when they are both used inappropriately and written badly they are an out and out disaster - - and one of the sad things about the world is that triggers (like most other demanding tools) have a horrible large number of people who think they know what they are doing with them but can neither sensibly judge when to use them nor write them competently - and those people have of course given triggers a terrible reputation.