It has nothing to do with rose colored glasses. The Attitude Era, in my opinion, was simply better. The superstars had more charisma, the storylines were generally better, things like Tag Team Champions meant more. Not to mention there was the added drama of the Monday Night Wars. There were two big wrestling promotions putting out high quality shows on Mondays and both delivering great PPVs. It was awesome.
I don't think that anyone is pretending that is was perfect or that every single second was filled with awesome but that doesn't mean it can't have been better. I still watch WWE today, but there's no doubt in my mind about which era I think is better. AE wins hands down every single time. I look fondly back on Rock-N-Wrestling from back when I was a kid but I'd still take the Attitude Era over that as well.
If you think preferring one period of wrestling over another is simply looking through rose colored glasses, then think what you will I suppose. I'll keep looking through em'. There's a pretty significant difference in quality, in my eyes at least, between then and now.
Edit: That's another thread discussion though, so I'm just gonna stop there.