I've watched it since day one and still love it.
I will admit some storylines can be ridiculous and some characters annoy me but I still enjoy it.
The thing is with soaps, there's only so many storylines you can come up with, it must be very difficult trying to come up with something different and new and to find good characters.
People often rave about the classics in soaps, but we have to remember that when they all started out, everything was new, all the storylines were a first, writers could do anything with a character, as the years have gone by the characters have grown and personalities and history are formed, it takes more work as writers have to look back to ensure the continuation is right.
When I watch some of the classics I actually think, they weren't that brilliant, they were good for it's time, EE classic is just all shouting, everyone sleeping with each other etc there was also a lot more families, many more characters to work with and only on 2 days a week to begin with, now there's less families, and on 4 days a week, so storylines will end up repeated and sometimes the fillers are bad.
I do think that when they make a mistake getting rid of a character, they really need to find out if they're doing the right thing, they always seem to get rid of popular characters, probably to get ratings, but that only lasts a few weeks, then they're gone and they're left with no popular character so people tune out.