There is a massive difference between liking a concept or the implementation of that concept. Communism is an utopia, socialism is seen as the way to get there.
Socialism did not proof to be viable in reality, with dictators claiming to set up communist states, while not setting up working socialist societies.
The thing is that implementing such a society includes a massive restructuring of government and ownership of goods. Those measures have a very strong tendency to dissolve in civil wars and dictatorships.
It is of course an option to label anyone who doesn’t want to give up resources an enemy of the class / state and imprison and torture them, but it does not create a stable society in which people actually choose to live, if they can decide on that.
I would caution you about socialism being a way to get to communism.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the founders of communist ideology, believed democratic socialism was a sham and true communism could only be achieved through a violent overthrow of the bourgeois.
The complex restructuring you mentioned is why they thought a transition from socialism to communism would not work.