I'm not sure hysteria is the word you're looking for. Hyperbole, sure. But the notebooks feel great and the paper quality is excellent. It's worth noting that some pens perform really poorly on their paper, but gel pens + moleskine is just an extremely pleasant writing combination. Plus I'm pretty partial to the notebook size. It's not that they are the only company to do this, but it is just a consistently very nice experience without breaking the bank.