Honestly I have no problem with baby Pokemon. Yes some of them can be a major hassle to get but for the most part they aren't that difficult to get a hold of.
My favourite one is Munchlax who, honestly, I've never had in-game because I find the whole 'have Snorlax hold this particular item' or (in the case of gen 4) 'you have [number]% chance of getting it from honey trees' thing to be a bit of a pain. I just think the little guy's a cutie. Additionally I don't really see a problem with building up happiness to evolve them. You have to do that with Eevee in order to get Espon or Umbreon and people seem a lot more forgiving of that than they are of baby Pokemon.
It can be a little frustrating, and I get why people are turned off by the idea. It'd be nice if they could hold their own in battle a bit better, but in terms of actually getting them... A good number of them (Off the top of my head: Budew, Magby, Elekid, Munchlax if you're willing to put the time in, Mantyke, Chingling, and I think Riolu) can be found in the wild in at least one fairly recent game (say, past 2 or 3 generations) anyways.
Basically if you like Espeon and Umbreon and are willing to put the time in to get them throughout the main story then I don't see why you'd have an issue with baby Pokemon.