I can't stand Jill and Leon either whereas Claire is my favourite hero and the Ashfords are my favourite villains, but still, I prefer RE1/REmake and RE2 over CV. The latter had the best story and an amazing soundtrack, among other things, but the game itself was too difficult and full of backtracking for my taste, plus the constant grey fog annoyed me, so I barely enjoyed it. My least favourite in the series, besides RE4.
As for the other two, I can't really decide which I like best because they're both so great, and as for the character problem, I mostly just play as the character I prefer anyway (Chris in 1, Claire in 2). Not that it's a real problem, though, since I also enjoy 3 despite Jill being the only playable character in story mode. In the end, it's the fun that counts.