I agree it is a tool but since its definition (or multiple definitions because it appears there are many conflicted OOP philosophies out there) is not very clear and it leads to a lot of needlessly confused ways of using it.

If it weren't so hyped in the first place maybe it would have evolved in a more harmonious way and it wouldn't be the subject to bashing now. I personally can use it for my projects, but I am in no way inclined to save it from bashing, it did bit me multiple times when my intuition was telling me otherwise. I guess what goes around comes around.