Wow, I can't believe I didn't get in on this thread yet! As one of the resident Belgian beer nuts, I feel obligated to post. First, let me point you to this
thread.
That said, in some ways I'm very surprised that I'm into Belgians, because I'm a huge hop head. Now I know there are some Belgians out there with a lot of hops, but I honestly believe that hoppy Belgians, for the most part, just don't work. I know, because I've tried crafting a couple. Unless you use hops to balance the nuances of the rest of the beer, you're just overpowering some of the greatest qualities of the Belgian style. Just about anyone can throw hops in a beer and call it good, but it takes real skill to make a good Belgian, I believe.
Anyway, all of the things the other guys said are exactly true. The most appealing thing about Belgians is that they are as much, or more, of an art than most other beers. They allow for a great deal of latitude in expression and creation and tailoring to your preferences. In fact, Belgians are the only ones I know of besides homebrewers that make more beers that are "homeless" (without a category). How cool is that? For sake of comparison, you'll note that German styles are usually stiff and staid in their guidelines for making a certain style; the classic German psychological type - black and white classification within categories, etc. In that way, Belgians are the best for homebrewers just because they fit so well into the mentality of the average homebrewer to be creative.
Anyway, there's no hype to these beers. They stand and stand tall on their own delicious merits.