I never quite understood why people disliked him! :o I got slightly shocked when I realized how popular he was to hate. He was one of my favorites (although tbh, I did not dislike any companion in PoE1 x] ). Did I as a player or my character pretty much ever agree with him? Nope, but I still liked him a lot and I found his character fun to bring along for the snide comments alone. c: I was really bummed out that there was no mention of him anywhere in PoE2 and that I couldn't even ask Magran about it. :<
I'm one of those Durance haters. Sorry. I'm also one of the few people who thinks Chris Avallone is highly overrated as a writer, and that his writing is boring and pedantic and ridiculously over the top. And that is pretty much how I see Durance as a character. Just plain annoying.
But overall I've loved most of the companions from the two PoE games. Same for the Pathfinder games.
