What drives a poor reputation for the Rogue class?

[Amnestic]

Well I tend to see a lot of SS and GWM by this level, so the reality is that rogues do end up weak comparatively. I also place pretty high importance on characters being strong at roughly the levels 5-8, since I feel campaigns tend to spend a lot of time there. That's partly a table thing, but it does also seem to be an intentional design decision if you look at XP tables.

This isn't to say that rogues are unredeemable or anything, but at best rogues seem "ok" at the levels where most classes feel like total powerhouses.

If you're using SS/GWM, then you've probably sacrificed an ASI to get it, so you'll have, what, 16 main stat, +3 PB, so a total of +1 to your actual attack bonus once the -5 is taken off?

Yeah, it's a big payoff if you hit. If.