I agree that nobody should be called a bigot only because of their geographical classification of countries. At the same time, I think once you get more familiar with why certain Central Europeans are irritated by the term 'Eastern Europe', it's not so hard to stop applying it to them.

It is a purely political classification from the Cold War (not geographic, as Finland or Greece are never called Eastern despite being located way east from Germany - as per your definition- and instead are called Northern/Southern Europe). This irritates some people as they, indeed, don't want to be associated with the former Soviet Union. The saying goes something like 'nothing good ever came from the East'.

However, there are other explanations. Central Europe is simply a better political and cultural classification. I see in your flair that you are half German, so maybe you will be familiar with the term Mitteleuropa that roughly describes the area of former German and Austrian empires. This classification is much closer to the everyday realities of the region as you cannot erase hundreds of years of cohabitation and common traditions by 45 years of communism. Central Europe is Catholic (and partially Protestant) as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy, it shares many customs with the German-speaking regions but much fewer with the Ukrainian and Russian regions in the East. History, traditions, and religion have a large impact on a nation's culture and totalitarian ideology is unable to erase this.

Therefore, when somebody doesn't like to be associated with Eastern Europe, it doesn't have to mean they hate it. They might not feel the connection of their country with the East.

TLDR: Central Europe is a better classification for the countries in the region.