Obviously this is a "hot" topic and everyone chooses which way they want to go. I'm so sorry you had such an apathetic response to your quilt.
The first time I had this happen, about 5 years ago, I made wallhangings for my daughter and my son's girl friend. I made a quilt for my son and another for my daughter's best friend for 15 years.
I got 2 thank you's . One from son and another from my daughter. Even though my daughter understands the effort in quilting, she has not hung it up yet. She wants to hang it in her office and she's waiting for her husband to hang it for her. Over a year ago I told her to use push pins and hang it on the wall. (Her office has those walls that you can stick push pins into). She still hasn't put it up.
I gave my husband a quilt and he criticized it when I showed it to him. I still had to quilt it, but all he could see was cat hair and the colors weren't right, etc. I put it in a drawer and didn't work on it for 18 months. When I finally gave it to him, he actually apologized profusely for how he'd reacted and how he'd hurt me.
My son's girl friend, five years later, wrote me an email telling me how sorry she was that she hadn't said thank you and appreciated what a wonderful gift it was.
But I decided I wasn't making quilts for people I didn't know well enough. I'd rather buy them something than put in so much time and effort. I don't hold it against people, but sure wished I hadn't given them the quilt.
The best response I ever got was for a quilt I gave my granddaughter. She had moved into a new house with a bedroom that she chose the colors for. I made a beautiful quilt for it, paid $200 to have it quilted (it was a queen size). ...I always make queen size for full size beds to get a good drop. Well, she called me on the phone and was screaming about how much she loved the quilt. How pretty it was! On and on she went for about 3 minutes!