How could I relinquish my beloved Wentworth to anyone less wonderful than Anne? :-)

A lot of the anti-Wentworth feeling, I think, stems from how tightly focused Persuasion is on Anne's POV: we know her so well that it's easy to forget that Wentworth can't know she's spent eight years regretting her decision, following his career closely and wishing he'd try again. He gets his first inkling of all this when he learns that she refused Charles, and, as someone pointed out below, that's about when he starts to thaw.