I didn't like Macross 7 at all.
I guess for me it deviates to much from the setting and style I had come to expect from the series. I had seen the TV series, DYRL, and Plus first. I enjoyed those in part because of their "feasible" technology and military hardware and having many aspects explained with either real physics/scientific ideas or standard sci-fi phenomena (folding, spaceships, aliens, and the like). Those series just seemed more grounded to me, and that helped me get more attached to the characters and care about them. Especially in the case of DYRL and Plus (and eventually Zero) I loved the excellent animation as well.
I guess ultimately Macross 7 just deviated too much from what I enjoyed from the other series. I didn't like the animation at all, even though I understand the reasons for it being of poorer quality. I find the character designs too stylized and cartoony compared to those for the other series. I also didn't like Basara from the beginning and never warmed up to him. I just got so tired of hearing the same "listen to my song" and those J-pop tunes over and over and over and over again. It just got so repetative. It's like knowing in Voltron that at the end of the show the lions are going to join together and use the big sword. You know Basara is going to demand everyone listen's to his song. By the end I just wished someone would finish him off. So there was little hope I would like M7 since I hated the main character.
Like others have said I didn't like most of the Valkyrie designs for the Sound Force, mainly because I liked the straight military style of the Valks from the other series so much. The whole spiritia thing was just a little to magical and "out there" compared to the rest of the series. Perhaps I would have enjoyed M7 more if it wasn't tied to the rest of the Macross universe. Then again, maybe not. Ugly character designs, annoying main character, recycled battle sequences, ackingly bad songs, uber-repetative phrases, and superhero-tights mecha pretty much doomed the series for me.