I haven't had problems with the pond. I have a town with 3 ponds the PWP have been fine.
I put a bench and a lamp in front of it. It's the place where I sit when I have a lot of visitors.
One of my other towns only has one and it doesn't look right. I would have liked another to help stop villagers from moving in a certain area. I've max out my PWP so that's not a option.
I love ponds, but if I have more than three, those ponds coupled with all the rocks make PWP and housing so much harder. It's so frustrating to have ponds, rocks, (which you can't do anything about) be a problem for PWP placement and that's not to mention with the other stuff that comes along like also being to close to a bridge, the plaza, the train station, another house, etc.
It's just that, as others have said, the placement can really stink.