Yeah, Thats the thing. I had no end of trouble trying to get my 590 to work in surround, it had crashing issues as well: switched to my 7970, and I still have the occasional bug in niche software and driver crashes here and there. Ultimately the experience is better on my 7970, but the general public hear:
"blah blah, faulty 590 blah, blah blah AMD DRIVER CRASH ALL THE TIME blah blah."
I think it's just too easy to default to the "AMD DRIVERS SUXLOLOLOL" response when you know at least 2/3 of the audience would be in agreement. The worst part about that is, the majority of those who carry that sentiment actually don't have a clue what the specific sucky issues are, which only serves to perpetuate the perception that AMD "just sucks".