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I review a lot of popular fiction (romances, generally, but also other genres from time to time) as a sort of a hobby, and I find the label "bad writing" to be horribly imprecise. There are many aspects to writing: plot, characterization, style (including usage, diction, even grammar and punctuation), pacing, use of humor and genre tropes, accuracy, etc. Most popular fiction doesn't pretend to be "literary" in the same sense that Umberto Eco is, so I think we can leave that kind of quality out of the discussion.
What I do find is that some popular bestsellers (I refer to authors like Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, and John Grisham because they were the biggies back when I read more bestsellers) usually nail *some* of the aspects of good writing but at the expense of another--like, riveting plots with cardboard characters or a pedestrian style. What most popular bestsellers have in common is that they are fast-paced, have interesting ideas and/or characters, and are easy to read. They may or may not do well in other areas.
Sometimes, though, something stinks enough that I can say it's bad writing and move on. Here is, I kid you not, an actual sentence from a romance by a "best-selling" (whatever that means; it's in her bio) author
"He was ready to f**k and defile, to sate and purge himself; to finesse, beguile, and abuse her in every conceivable fashion, and he didn't intend to be penitent for whatever he might perpetuate."
The whole book was like that, only in some places the diction was much worse. I had to call it "appalling" (the style actually jarred me out of the reading experience, as many words seemed used in a way a little "off" from their true meanings, almost as if the author was using random thesaurus synonyms for word selection) even though the plot was fast-paced and melodramatic enough, and the sex scenes hot enough to account for a number of sales, I suppose).
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