No, it wasn't.
why SAO is a bad anime:
-snip-
SAO had two points that made it stand out from more generic anime to me:
- The "wow" factor of seeing a guy with a normal life get sucked into the virtual world, and how immersive that virtual world is
- Main character actually chose a girl before the end (although the romance is still bland)
I've seen it twice now and the second time it's definitely much worse than the first time watching. It has its moments but overall is still pretty mediocre. And then for some reason it continues after episode 14...
And why is Little Witch Academia so popular? It didn't seem like anything special to me.