I read parts of it in books I thought to be unconspicuous in the local library at the time of my baptism as a teenager. I was not shocked at all, it confirmed to me, that the experiences of family members, who had more contacts to higher-ups were evidently not made up, but true. So I was used to a certain degree of critical approach in the post-75 era.
Over the years i made my own experiences with the imperfections of the organization, reading eventually the whole of CoC, joining this board, which nonetheless didn't stop me from my belief in God and the fact that he uses an organization. Evidently no perfection can be found anywhere, but personally I didn't find any alternative.
So I try to do my part to live the Bible's principles and apply some of the quite excellent suggestions in the magazines, (nice ones in this week's Watchtower study...) though it is hard to do so if you have to deal with the average-minded elder...; but the ideals are good and people will need 1000+ years to get where they ought to be in the first place.
LL