I used to feel the same way until I really started watching games and practicing with my daughter. Having never played myself, I was impressed with how hard it was to get the ball from my her when she was even 10-11 years old. The smaller wins/losses in soccer are possession related and 1v1s. Losing possession in the wrong scenario can lead to a goal pretty quickly.
The skill and tactics and stamina needed for soccer are really astounding. I think a lot of people view soccer as much easier than it is and focus on the lack of scoring and flopping (btw, even soccer fans hate flopping). And it was trendy to hate soccer in the US because for a long time since we didn't have any global success. I don't care if someone doesn't care to watch it, but there is a weird cult of people that go out of there way to attack it.
In terms of the shot-clock comparison, every sport has a stalling aspect that people don't like. My wife hates that football teams can milk the last 3 minutes of a game if the opposing team doesn't have timeouts.