This is mostly due to poor web development. When I make websites I insist that hover events not be used as critical functions for navigation, etc. There is nothing more irritating then trying to navigate a site that relies on hover menus. Any responsive or mobile optimized websites should not have this problem.
When it comes to IE hate in the web industry, it's justified. IE10 was the first version that was actually good. But as long as Microsoft versions their browser allowing for users to keep browsers several versions behind, they will be the knife in developers back. With Chrome and Firefox, you can count on 99% of those users having the most up to date version. IE? Hell no. We still have to consider IE8, and sometimes IE7 (7 years old). Thankfully IE6 is finally disappearing. Worst version of IE ever.
The funny thing is, I was really excited for IE11 and its new developer tools. Unfortunately Microsoft still failed to offer right mouse click to inspect element. This is probably the most commonly used developer function in Chrome and Firefox. It amazes me how they spent all this time working on finally adding robust developer tools, but missed that basic, simple feature. FAIL.
/rant