Personally, "We Built This City" is probably the best example of what can happen to a veteran band when everything goes wrong. Their other hits, while not particularly great, are saved from being the worst by virtue of their anoymnity.
aside from the fact that WBTC has a personal connection (I first heard it while on vacay in SF, 6 years before I moved here), I think that it's a song that's actually attempting to be *about* something, whereas every other '80s hit of theirs is generic AOR crapola, with often horrendous, nonsensical lyrics ("like a cat and a mouse/from door to door and house to house"?) I honestly didn't know anyone who didn't like WBTC in 1985. The "OMG -- worst song ever" meme emerged much later.