The US computer buying public had a natural progression depending upon income and interest.

One of the common routes for the middle class/upper middle class young computer fan was as follows:

Sinclair ZX81
Commodore VIC-20
Commodore 64
Commodore 128
IBM PC
PC Compatible

That would cover the years between 1980 and 1990 with a PC compatible being used ever since.

The VIC-20 was wildly popular, had dozens of available cartridge games and extensions from Sargon II chess to all the various popular arcade games of the period. If you had only two hundred dollars to spend on a computing system the VIC-20 was a great choice, utilizing your television or one of the new 'high resolution green-screen monochrome or much higher priced color monitors. If you never played Radar Rat Race or Omega Race on a VIC-20, you missed out on one of the computer revolutions finest early moments. ;-)

Another route for those who had just a bit more money or really bought into the APPLE ad saturation was:

Apple II
MACintosh
PC Compatible
i-MAC

Most Apple users tried out a PC at least once, especially during the few early years of the 90s when PCs were eclipsing MACs in software availability. On the business targeted Apple III, having the monitor built-in seemed like a savings to very few and wasteful to many others which likely limited its sales appeal to home users. This was the problem with lots of built-in monitor systems such as Kaypro, etcetera. The high price , limited compatibility support doomed them, even though they had a big advertisement push.

I'd be remiss if I missed yet another popular route American computer users used which was:

TRS-80
(various model upgrades)
PC Compatible

So bashing the VIC-20 is like bashing the Wright Brothers first glider. It served a definite purpose in promoting personal computing among a vast number of people throughout the world.