I can see where someone would not like miso. Like one poster mentioned not liking the way that it looks. Hey I don't like notto.

Most places in the US go out of the way to ruin miso soup. Instant dashi, boiling at a high temp, too much water, low quality miso, too much seaweed on and on. I have had low quality miso soup in Japan but it is not as common.

Good miso soup takes some time but not to much work. For the dashi I use katsuobushi and a small piece of kombu. After I have my dashi I then add my other ingredients like daikon, mushrooms ect when the soup is finished turn off heat and add miso.