I feel like Times New Roman somehow got a bad reputation just because it is the default font for everything. If you go on Facebook and there are 155 TNR-devoted groups, most of which are called believable things like “Times New Roman is hindering my creativity” or “Times New Roman is responsible for all of society’s misfortunes”.
Well. Check out this site. I did a double take when I went there because I couldn’t believe it was TNR. It’s so beautiful! I think the actual problem with TNR is that it doesn’t do itself any favors as a default. It’s so unadorned and utilitarian, it needs some extra care from the designer to really bring its flavor out.
And I mean, things could be worse. Would everyone rather Arial were the default font? Oh, wait.