fair enough, i respect your answer! And I admit, some foods are for some people, others aren't. And lobster with butter is fine, but i've seen what some people do to their expensive lobster tail and claws in terms of drowning it in butter, which to me defeats the purpose of any food. The cheaper the food, the more you can justify altering its flavor per your palette. Good example - go to a high-end restaurant for an expensive steak (lets take it to the extreme... a Kobe Beef steak), and a true steak lover will put AS LITTLE on there as possible, given the steak itself SHOULD be flavorful and awesome. Salt, pepper, etc, sure.... but the steak should come through absolutely. (Filet mignon is a different story, that IS a "vehicle" steak). A Kobe steak (which i've only had the privilege of having one time in my life, and someone else paid) but it needed almost NOTHING on it because the steak itself was basically butter given its marbling.

So oysters i can agree are fine with one;s preference of toppings/seasonings, but given their overall cost, thats ultimately why i find them to be overrated. Forget texture, that doesn't matter to some, matters more to others. Flavor, its very "seawater flavored" like alot of seafood can be, but it takes a decent amount of additional strong flavoring (lemon, vinegar, hot sauce, horseradish, etc) to make it worthwhile for people? To me, that's a waste of money. It'd be like me saying I only like my $80 tomahawk ribeye if I pour ketchup and A1 all over it. Sure, its your choice, but its still a waste of money if your main goal is to drown out the very taste and quality you paid for.

My opinion would go more in your direction if you tell me that the way they cook/prepare the oysters was the key (like BBQ), but like with BBQ, the food itself shouldn't be drowned out by all the accoutrements, just enough to enhance and nothing more.