never particularly liked him except when he gave kakashi his sharingan and tutored him about putting friends over orders, and when he acted silly as tobi, rather than I'll admit he is very strong but I never felt linked with this character.
i think youre taking it out of proportion
its not like he lusts after a 13 year old its more like its hard for him to let go of a love he once had which blossomed into something deeper with the traumatic sight of his best friend killing his love interest
he never really got friendzoned just unacknowledged
I consider him to be a great character and honestly, I don't see how is he hated so much, but then again Obito haters are nothing more than a group of idiots who wish to follow the same bandwagon so that they could be 'cool' on the internet. The Rin argument is ridiculous and it seems that people who use it lack the ability to read the actual text on the panels and not just look at the pictures.