I use VLC from at least 2006 (perhaps earlier, i remember the old icon) and i never remember hearing that "meme". Perhaps it was in some closed circle you were or something, but i remember VLC always having a top-notch reputation with mplayer being the only that could contest it in terms of codec support.

The Internet is a big place, we were probably hanging out in different circles cause I never heard that.

Indeed. In my circles around that time we were all switching to VLC.