It helps to look at the whole set in Gatherer and think about what you don't see.
- The only counterspell is Memory Lapse (this is actually better now than it was back then -- remember this was competing with Counterspell and Mana Drain).
- There are no real card draw spells. There is one looting spell, Forget, and all the other "draw a card" cards are cantrips.
- The only straight-up removal spell costs 5 (beyond that, you've got the annoyingly-specific artifact-smashing Legends and Serrated Arrows, which is one of the few cards to escape Homelands and actually see competitive play).
- The only sweepers are a couple of cards that do 1 damage to everything (e.g. Dry Spell) and Apocalypse Chime.
- There's no real burn in the entire set. Direct damage is limited to overcosted pingers and cards like Winter Sky.
- There are a lots of cards like AEther Storm and Aysen Highway -- which do practically nothing (one notable exception: An-Zerrin Ruins).
- Its flagship cards are Legends-style giant honkin' Legends that are practically unplayable against the competitive decks of its day.
Basically it's a set that's full of rather weak creatures and almost nothing else. Have fun turning Spectral Bears sideways!
Mark Rosewater described it this way:
It wasn't very innovative. It didn't introduce any strong mechanics. It didn't have good synergy. It wasn't particularly elegant. It didn't have many of the qualities that we now judge a set's design by. (To be fair, the set was very flavorful, so it wasn't without any design merit.)
Its reputation was cemented when Wizards tried to "fix" Homelands' unpopularity by adding stupid rules to the first Pro Tour.