People have different expectations and tastes. Sovereign once said he made signatures which consisted of simply a background a plain text for a group of people and they were like "omg awesome".
As a graphics designer myself and most other people in this thread, we all have high expectations for signatures and frankly not every piece of artwork meets them. Sure, you're entitled to your little ego trip thinking all your work is awesome but we're also entitled to our opinions that they suck.
Opinions come in conflict, flame start. The best thing to do is to accept the criticism of others and improve upon your skills based on them, instead of wasting time arguing how the others are in the wrong for telling you your skills are not as high as you think they are.
Thanks Exile for the comment. I actually didn't use a single external effect but rather lots and lots of manipulation of the render, to achieve a natural blend.