It's not that I hate pre-Remington Marlins. It's that their quality (pre Remington Marlins) were all over the map. I blame this on individuals working on these rifles with little engineering support and drawings. A good builder built nice rifles. New or slack or maybe Friday builds were not so great.
Older Marlins were put together rather well. There is a period prior to Remington acquiring Marlin where quality was bad, especially towards the end. I bought a 444 Marlin in 2004 brand new. The screw hole for the front sight was drilled all the way through the barrel wall into the bore. Probably wasn't an end of the world issue, but regardless, I sent it back to Marlin to be re-barrelled. I carefully packed the rifle in foam so it would not be damaged or marred in shipping. Imagine my surprise when I got it back to find multiple scratches on parts of the rifle's metal when I got it back. I called Marlin and complained. I had them send me a new forecap and several other pieces so I could replace the scratched parts.
