The only reason I don't like using OverloadedStrings for typing string literals as Text and ByteString is that when you turn on OverloadedStrings, you turn it on for all types, not just Text and ByteString. I don't want to be forced to do that. Because all other uses of OverloadedStrings that I have seen, and there are many, are ill-advised in my opinion. They all should have been quasiquoters.
Could you name some names here? Regardless of how this whole thread goes, maybe people will agree that those uses were indeed ill-advised, and we can get them fixed up. Perhaps the problem is that fromString is very easy to understand and write, but quasi-quoters sound like a whole new complicated thing to learn about. If we could either demonstrate that they're not so bad to write, or have a little library that makes them easier for "stringlike" things, then maybe we could move the first instinct away from "hack a quick fromString" to "hack a quick QQ".