I'm glad you like it, Someone's got to.

I've had to learn a lot of "set theory" (12 tone, serialist) in my bachelor's degree/masters degree. I know some people love it, but to me, it's the most uninteresting part of music theory. I can see how it's fun to tinker with, and respect the people who compose in the style., but I find much of the music composed with strict serialist ideals in mind to be not only restrictive, but also difficult to Listen to and alienating to both the audience and the performer.

It basically takes the breakdown of "Traditional" western harmony that occurred over the 19th century and early 20th century, then brings it back into the Baroque period where music was in many ways more complicated. faster harmonic rhythm ( often changing every beat), more complex musical styles (specifically the fugue) combined with the tonality (or more specifically, the lack thereof) and the difficulty of the intervals to tune correctly (we're not used to hearing tritones and semitones as easily as 8ves, 5ths and 4ths) makes for music that is difficult to hear, difficult to play, and requires a lot of knowledge to appreciate.

As I said before, I'm glad you like it and that you found this link between your two passions. I just wish that it wasn't so prevalent in New Music (indeed, composers are steering away from it) because I feel like it is responsible for the hesitancy for orchestras to program new works and audiences to listen to them.