3 years who was awesome. I had friends, on the other hand, who had terrible Bishops. It was all just luck of the draw, but if I'd been in the wards of some of my friends, I very well could be one of those former BYU students who hates BYU today. My only real run-in with the Honor Code Office basically involved my Bishop telling them to shove it on my behalf. That experience made me like my Bishop even more and made the HCO not seem all that scary or imposing.
Someone in my situation with a crappy Bishop (as was the case of the girl who was also involved) likely would come away feeling like BYU cared only about controlling students with an iron fist.