I think that footwear is where goretex gets slammed in particular. I'm content with goretex in other contexts, but in shoes I'm not a fan, depending on the exact conditions they're to be used in. The big downside in relatively lightweight shoes is once the shoe does get wet, goretex will dry out more slowly than quick-to-wet but also quick-to-dry fabric. My one experience with goretex shoes had another problem in that both shoes fairly quickly developed wear-holes where the shoe flexes across the toes. A water proof (or resistant) shoe with a hole is a bit like a submarine with a screen door. The worst of both worlds, it gets wet in short order, but is slower to dry.

One place I would like a goretex shoe or light boot would be on a day hike or maybe just a weekender in expected wet weather. Not long enough to wet the shoe out and leave you unhappy for significant periods of time --- that's certainly a case where it's nice to not get immediately wet at the first contact with water. My solution there, however, is to bring a goretex *sock*.

Certainly opinions vary on this a lot. Not as much as on the question of "which is the 'best' shoe", but there's still never going to be universal consensus.