The only thing I dislike about Tom is how he forced you to work part time in previous games, that was boring.
But really he's not that bad of a guy. He gives you unlimited time to pay your loans, you don't even have to pay them off if you don't have to. And he can't just give you them for free, because A the guy needs to live, and B you need to work for reward.
Compare Nook and his loans to your loans in real life, if you have a house. Pretty sure in that comparison Tom is a saint. In real life, you have to pay to just own your house. No expanding the rooms or anything. Tom lets you have a huge house with each payment. And if you don't want a huge house, you don't have to pay at all. You aren't forced to pay him. And you aren't given a time limit unlike real life. And once you have a huge house, if you want to have a huge house, you don't owe any more money! You don't have to keep paying to own it or an electric bill or water bill or whatever the heck bill.
Plus, Bells are easy as pie to make.
So yeah, Nook man is a cool man. Don't understand his bad rap.