I think I have finally realized exactly why some Trek fans hate Bajorans so much, or call them "boring", as well as why I love them and find their stories interesting. And I think it is the same reason.
I've come to this realization while rewatching early season 1 (so far, "Emissary", "Past Prologue", "A Man Alone" and "Babel". One thing that particualrly struck me in those early episodes is that, while Cardassians seemed like classic villains at the time, the real main villains in each of the episodes were all Bajorans. You can see that the show enjoyed confounding expectations early on. After being introduced to Bajorans in "Emissary" as a spiritual people who have suffered terribly, and getting to know them only through a plucky, tough-as-nails heroine with a dark past (Kira) and an an angelic wise middle-aged religious woman (Kai Opaka), with "Past Prologue" and "A Man Alone" we had two episodes in a row with very different Bajoran villains: a nationalistic extremist and very dangerous terrorist (Tahna Los), an immoral and opportunistic ex-black marketeer and murderer (Ibudan), and a bloodthirsty mob out to lynch Odo not so much for being a former 'collaborator' or a suspect in a murder case, as much as simply being different. And although "Babel" does not have a villain, again it turns out, for the 3rd episode in a row, that it's the Bajorans who have caused the problem, rather than the Cardassians, and the closest thing to an antagonist is the late scientist's assistant, a selfish arsehole who does not give a damn about people on the station dying if there's a chance he'll get in trouble - and who does end up saving the day, but only after being abducted by Kira and forced to find an antidote in order to save his own skin.
This has got me thinking about all the other minor and not so minor Bajoran characters throughout DS9, and it's made me realize a couple of things.
First off, Bajorans may be actually the race with the widest variety in characterization in Trek - possibly even more so than the Cardassians, and definitely more so than Trek Humans. Thanks to the station's setting, we've met all sorts of Bajorans - from the almost-too-good-to-be-true ones like Opaka or Bareil, to angry, flawed and morally ambiguous heroes like Kira, to downright despicable like Ibudan, Vaatrik's wife ("Necessary Evil"), or the collaborator Basso ("Wrongs Darker than Death or Night" - this guy must be one of the most despicable people in Trek in general). From power-hungry leaders like Win, to a bunch of sheep-like people who'll follow anyone with an ounce of charisma and eloquence. Which leads to my second realization....
Out of all the races in Trek, Bajorans are the ones who are the most similar to humans - not the 'evolved' 24th century Trek humans, but the humans as we know them, real, unevolved, 20th century humans. Bajorans are not a stereotype made out of one magnified human characteristic, like 'honor' or 'greed'; they don't make good comedy like Ferengi; physically and biologically they are quite normal by human standards - no symbionts and multiple lifetimes, only two genders; no unusual mental powers like telepathy; they are not exotic enough to be 'cool' like Klingons, they don't have cool catchprases or weird weapons (and don't seem to practice caveman sex that you could have a bunch of nudge-nudge wink-wink scenes about). Instead of some Viking/Bushido blend, their terrorists/Resistance fighters look too much like the real life terrorists/freedom fighters - which is a bit too close to home, and hardly likely to get a bunch of geeks to appear in conventions dressed like them and start learning some made-up language. It's hard to reduce them to one or two characteristics, as people love to do with Trek alien races. The only thing anyone has ever come up with is their religion. (Of course, there've been several Bajorans characters who were not religious at all, like Ro, or didn't seem to care either way. Tahna Los, was instance, was a straighforward nationalist, "Bajor for the Bajorans", and was ready to blow up the entrance to the wormhole - which was not 'Celestrial Temple' to him.) Religion as an important and integral part of the culture is something that differentiates Bajorans from most other cultures in Trek - but, again, makes them very similar to... real life humans as we know them.
Cardassians are also quite close to being most similar to humans, but they get witty quotes, sexy uniforms, mysteriousness and the Magnificent Bastardry of the most prominent Cardassian characters. Out of Bajoran characters, the only one who gets anywhere close to being a MB is Win, which explains her popularity with some Bajoran-hating fans - but ultimately, a self-righteous middle-aged female religious leader is no match for witty spies or badass Klingon generals. Out of the other characters, the ones that can be considered heroes often provoke a lot of grumbling from some fans, who just can't forgive them for having been eastablished as victims of a ruthless occupation. Nobody likes a victim, right - especially if they are so "whiny" and 'self-righteous" , i.e. they dare to actually remind people that their planet had been ravaged and their people killed, raped, starved...gee, can't they put it to rest, it has been just - what? A month? A week? Come on guys, that kind of talk just reminds people of real life, and it is just not fun!
As for all those less-than-admirable Bajorans of various kinds (whether it is Tahna, or the Vaatriks, or Basso, or one of the angry mob who'll lynch someone for being different, not to mention those who'll kill a Cardassian only for being a Cardassian), they just mirror the ugly face of humanity (instead of presenting some exotic version of it).
And all in all, Bajorans terrorism, the importance of religion in their lives, their various factions and politics and power struggle - all this is, well.. just too similar to real life humans, which makes it "boring" and "not cool".
Unless you actually happen to enjoy it for all those reasons, like me.
I've come to this realization while rewatching early season 1 (so far, "Emissary", "Past Prologue", "A Man Alone" and "Babel". One thing that particualrly struck me in those early episodes is that, while Cardassians seemed like classic villains at the time, the real main villains in each of the episodes were all Bajorans. You can see that the show enjoyed confounding expectations early on. After being introduced to Bajorans in "Emissary" as a spiritual people who have suffered terribly, and getting to know them only through a plucky, tough-as-nails heroine with a dark past (Kira) and an an angelic wise middle-aged religious woman (Kai Opaka), with "Past Prologue" and "A Man Alone" we had two episodes in a row with very different Bajoran villains: a nationalistic extremist and very dangerous terrorist (Tahna Los), an immoral and opportunistic ex-black marketeer and murderer (Ibudan), and a bloodthirsty mob out to lynch Odo not so much for being a former 'collaborator' or a suspect in a murder case, as much as simply being different. And although "Babel" does not have a villain, again it turns out, for the 3rd episode in a row, that it's the Bajorans who have caused the problem, rather than the Cardassians, and the closest thing to an antagonist is the late scientist's assistant, a selfish arsehole who does not give a damn about people on the station dying if there's a chance he'll get in trouble - and who does end up saving the day, but only after being abducted by Kira and forced to find an antidote in order to save his own skin.
This has got me thinking about all the other minor and not so minor Bajoran characters throughout DS9, and it's made me realize a couple of things.
First off, Bajorans may be actually the race with the widest variety in characterization in Trek - possibly even more so than the Cardassians, and definitely more so than Trek Humans. Thanks to the station's setting, we've met all sorts of Bajorans - from the almost-too-good-to-be-true ones like Opaka or Bareil, to angry, flawed and morally ambiguous heroes like Kira, to downright despicable like Ibudan, Vaatrik's wife ("Necessary Evil"), or the collaborator Basso ("Wrongs Darker than Death or Night" - this guy must be one of the most despicable people in Trek in general). From power-hungry leaders like Win, to a bunch of sheep-like people who'll follow anyone with an ounce of charisma and eloquence. Which leads to my second realization....
Out of all the races in Trek, Bajorans are the ones who are the most similar to humans - not the 'evolved' 24th century Trek humans, but the humans as we know them, real, unevolved, 20th century humans. Bajorans are not a stereotype made out of one magnified human characteristic, like 'honor' or 'greed'; they don't make good comedy like Ferengi; physically and biologically they are quite normal by human standards - no symbionts and multiple lifetimes, only two genders; no unusual mental powers like telepathy; they are not exotic enough to be 'cool' like Klingons, they don't have cool catchprases or weird weapons (and don't seem to practice caveman sex that you could have a bunch of nudge-nudge wink-wink scenes about). Instead of some Viking/Bushido blend, their terrorists/Resistance fighters look too much like the real life terrorists/freedom fighters - which is a bit too close to home, and hardly likely to get a bunch of geeks to appear in conventions dressed like them and start learning some made-up language. It's hard to reduce them to one or two characteristics, as people love to do with Trek alien races. The only thing anyone has ever come up with is their religion. (Of course, there've been several Bajorans characters who were not religious at all, like Ro, or didn't seem to care either way. Tahna Los, was instance, was a straighforward nationalist, "Bajor for the Bajorans", and was ready to blow up the entrance to the wormhole - which was not 'Celestrial Temple' to him.) Religion as an important and integral part of the culture is something that differentiates Bajorans from most other cultures in Trek - but, again, makes them very similar to... real life humans as we know them.
Cardassians are also quite close to being most similar to humans, but they get witty quotes, sexy uniforms, mysteriousness and the Magnificent Bastardry of the most prominent Cardassian characters. Out of Bajoran characters, the only one who gets anywhere close to being a MB is Win, which explains her popularity with some Bajoran-hating fans - but ultimately, a self-righteous middle-aged female religious leader is no match for witty spies or badass Klingon generals. Out of the other characters, the ones that can be considered heroes often provoke a lot of grumbling from some fans, who just can't forgive them for having been eastablished as victims of a ruthless occupation. Nobody likes a victim, right - especially if they are so "whiny" and 'self-righteous" , i.e. they dare to actually remind people that their planet had been ravaged and their people killed, raped, starved...gee, can't they put it to rest, it has been just - what? A month? A week? Come on guys, that kind of talk just reminds people of real life, and it is just not fun!
As for all those less-than-admirable Bajorans of various kinds (whether it is Tahna, or the Vaatriks, or Basso, or one of the angry mob who'll lynch someone for being different, not to mention those who'll kill a Cardassian only for being a Cardassian), they just mirror the ugly face of humanity (instead of presenting some exotic version of it).
And all in all, Bajorans terrorism, the importance of religion in their lives, their various factions and politics and power struggle - all this is, well.. just too similar to real life humans, which makes it "boring" and "not cool".
Unless you actually happen to enjoy it for all those reasons, like me.
I could never understand the "stop whining about the occupation" complaints from some fans. The core premise of the show, and one of its strongest in terms of the characters, situations, emotions and issues it could generate, and some people seemed to want to discard it completely. Well, each to their own, of course, but when we factor in the desire to be realistic, it simply made no sense to show the Bajorans as simply putting 60 years of brutal occupation behind them.
and I particularly loved the interactions between the Bajoran and the Cardassian characters - they always made for some of the most fascinating and compelling moments in DS9. 
