Hey there, Triclosan, welcome to the site!
Your rant is something that a lot of people with a bit of common sense have repeated many times before.
The simple truth of the matter is that we trekkies do tend to get caught up in trek - that's why we're known as trekkies afterall! We can't help it!
You're right about what Enterprise tried to achieve - attracting new fans whilst keeping the fans happy is an almost impossible task. The fans want big, arcing storylines with lots of background references and a timeline that 'fits'.
The casual watcher however, wants big battles, lotsa weapons, an 'invincible' enemy, and loads of special effects. The stories have to be short and sweet, to the point, and have little or no references to past episodes/knowledge.
Whilst you'll be hard pressed to find someone who would say no to a big space-battle, the rest of the points are very hard to put together into one storyline. Striking a balance should have been the ultimate goal of the producers, but ultimately, they got it a bit wrong - at least at the start.
This turned some of the fans against it from the first episode, and from there on, it was downhill. These fans stopped watching it, (Without giving it a decent chance) and started saying how much they didn't like it, quoting only the broken timeline as their reason for doing so.
Some people who might have missed the first episode(s) were likely put off by the comments about it, so they themselves never watched it. Then there are others who were basically brainwashed by those that didn't like it.
By the time Enterprise started getting good, there were relatively few people watching it, and their voices were overcast by those that didn't.
It's only now that it has been cancelled that people are realising what a big mistake they've made. As always, it is simply too late.
People don't HATE Enterprise, they just misunderstood it, got too wrapped up in timelines and technology, and didn't give it the chance it deserved.