You mean the consensus from the people who are actually writing about it on the internet.
You seem to be assuming that every person who's played through that area doesn't like it. Fact is, you're probably only seeing the opinion of a vocal minority.
That doesn't mean that area isn't a letdown compared to rest of the game (I wouldn't know yet), but you shouldn't assume that everyone feels the same way.
I love this game. The first 75% of it. I have been at RPGWatch a long time and I will tell you the Deep Caverns are one of the worst design decisions of all time. I played this game for 8 hours a day until the Deep Caverns. Then after about 6 hours there I had no desire to finish the game. I love the combat in this game and the items. I also loved my character and enjoyed leveling him to max lvl. It was so tedious in the Deep Caverns that I will never finish this game that I love and that is sad.
I had my buddy buy Underrail and we have been playing RPG's since Wizardry. He was unable to finish and lost all desire to play when he got to the Deep Caverns. We mapped out Bards Tale, Wizardry, and Might and Magic. So we know about tedium.
So JDR13 it is just not people on the internet, it is from true old school gamers, that will play these games until I take my last breath