I'd agree with that... and expand it out into a few reasons:
- Frustration with the gap between Fi-honed Ne possibilities and the limitations of reality.
- A low valuation of core strengths (Fi, esp) in many venues.
- Inability to clearly to communicate how we know something something is important (Fi reasoning being the hardest form of judging to communicate).
- Tend to develop any form of Je late, which makes turning our idealism into practical action seem impossible.
I think the above can combine with normal teen/early-adulthood angst about life, love and career to lead to a negative evaluation of being an INFP.
When I first stumbled around the INFP description, I found it very validating. It affirmed were others out there like me, and that my way of seeing the world wasn't broken. I think others can have the opposite reaction, where it becomes a summation of everything they wish they could change about themselves.
I think this hits the nail on the head & sums it all up.
It seems most of the INFPs who hate being INFP are teens, in the worst phase to be an INFP, IMO. It's the age when reality really hits you in the face, but you don't have the ability to take control just yet & deal with it in your own INFP way.
I first tested INFP as an adult, and I too found it a relief. As a teen, I did not identify with INFP, & I tested INTP, which was not a great fit either. That left me feeling more alienated. I wonder if this is the case with some INFPs who have yet to see themselves in type descriptions, especially as the teen years can make you less than balanced personality-wise. INFP may be the best fit of the 16, and yet, it's still too much fluffy bunny, which leaves you feeling even more misunderstood.
I've never noticed people having problems with INFP's IRL, so I don't understand where this stereo type comes from. Maybe for people just looking at the theory description, not applying it to real life people, they would see the INFP as being too sensitive, emo-ish, critical of anything outside of their value system, and too 'pie in the sky' impractical. However, the INFP's I know IRL are very open-minded, accepting, and function quite well with reality. So, who knows what the deal is. Screw them for not liking INFP's. Screw them in their silly, silly face.
Some of it is also the "INFP square peg in a round ESTJ world" aspect. Our natural strengths are not valued as much as many other types. Je associated qualities seem most valued in the USA anyway. So on paper, INFPs sound like people with major flaws & frivolous strengths. I agree that people read profiles & imagine something that most INFPs aren't (often missing key points too; most seem to forget the whole value-motivating factor). The profiles are caricatures also, meaning they are not representative of a whole, balanced, complex, real person.
In reality, I am not necessarily treated as some inferior. I don't find myself being viewed as the opposite to the ideal personality, although I am still a square peg. Instead, I find people a bit perplexed about how I navigate through life, sometimes in an admiring way. It doesn't make sense to them, but it seems to work for me. At worst, I am dismissed as odd or silly.
Anyway, some INFPs pick up on the fact that their qualities are seen as inferior on paper, and it gets to their self-esteem. It becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.