As a genre it lasted wayyyyyy too long. It would have been OK if it would have burned itself out in about 90 days. Instead, it lasted an entire decade.
There were some good songs, most were bad. I joined the "Death to Disco" squad when Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones decided to do disco tunes (even though I like both "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Miss You" a lot). At that point, I knew the trend had become a danger and needed to go.
Disco wasn't popular for an entire decade. In the United States it was only popular from about 1974 to 1980 (although in Europe it remained popular for a few years longer). But the problem that was that while disco
was popular it was all but inescapable. Disco influence was seen everywhere: clothing, hairstyles, television, movies, etc. All over the country radio stations started switching to all disco formats. People got so sick of disco being everywhere that it sparked an anti-disco backlash. And they started wearing t-shirts baring slogans like "Disco Sucks" and "Death to Disco" while Frank Zappa painted disco fans as being vapid and overdressed in his song "Dancin' Fool". In July of 1979 the famous
Disco Demolition Night made news worldwide, an event that many would later call "the day disco died." Less than a year later disco had vanished from the top 10 music charts, and the phrase "deader than disco" soon started popping up in movies and TV shows.
As for my own views on disco, they're similar to yours: it had a few catchy songs, but the vast majority of it was just plain awful.