Perhaps I'm influenced by having experience with web development but I like XAML. I see it as a huge plus rather than a PITA.
Having recently had to do some winforms development I was quite surprised that there wasn't so much info on the web about it as I recall. Back in 2003-5 there were more sites about winforms and more books. Now I think it's easier to find more info on WPF. That's my impression anyhow.