My problems with Orange Nation stemmed from their primo seating they used to get at basketball games. All the students wait outside all day long, only to get in and have the first 5-10 rows taken. They've fixed that problem in the past year.
During football, it sucks, but it's not SO bad. It is atleast better than having the first rows full of disinterested frat boys and sorority girls that couldn't care less, and left at halftime. (Take a look around this saturday at ULL if you don't believe me...the student section is going to have huge gaps where the school, for whatever reason, still lets them have block seating)
I didn't join the ON, and I've still had a great time. I've had, for the most part, good seats for games, and I didn't have to pay 50.00 to do it. Crappy tshirts, a few pizzas here and there, and a tiny discount on some food plus going to a couple practices just isn't worth it. It's unnecessary, but not as bad of a group now as it used to be. It used to alienate non-members, but now it's just a mild annoyance.