Well, yeah, I was kinda turned off by her voice when I first heard her during her debut. Even now, it's sometimes hard to listen fully to the first four albums, lol. Because she's soooo squeaky. :X But I've grown to love her voice, both before and now (even if it still gives me a slight headache if I listen for too long >.>'). Ayu's voice is certainly an acquired taste, lol!
And yeah, those people who talk about her "squeaky-ness" now, for the past five or so years, are just talking crap. :\ Because, besides the occasional high notes she hits (because she still naturally has a kinda high pitched voice), she hasn't been very squeaky since after RAINBOW. For Ayu, that had become the default insult for haters, like how Kuu-haters call her a ****, or whatever. I'm sure a lot of people actually do feel this way, but whatever. That's just their loss, right?
I mean, really, even if I hadn't gotten used to her voice, I love Ayumi and her music way too much to care anymore. Every singer has their "flaws" (though, I don't technically consider, in this case, Ayumi's high voice a flaw). And if we're talking about annoying voices.... Damn, so many singers, especially in Japan, have obnoxious voices, lol..... So Ayu has a lot of competition in that area. XD