I play the French but HATE e6

OP is right!!

The French would be an awesome defense, except for that stupid pawn on e6!!

Botvinnik and Petrosian both played the french quite a bit , as well as Korchnoi and noone played it as much as Uhlmann I don't believe . Fischer lost several games against the french but I don't believe he ever played it as black . Interestingly Fischer always played 3 Nc3 against the french and against the winawer always chose either 4 e5  or  4 a3 immediately and he scored better with 4 a3 . 

Fischer hated playing against the french if i remember correctly, i think he struggled mightily against it for some reason.

The argument that no big deal GM plays this (or that) particular opening exclusively is bogus. Most top GMs play a variety of openings to keep their own repetoire from getting too overly familiar with their small group of serious opponents. They need to keep their opponents on their toes.

Of course every player GM or not has a favorite thing to play and a go-to opening, but that's a different argument entirely.

The reason is that the French (played well) is very hard to play against. :D

Ian Nepomniachtchi is one of the young 2700 talented player who always employ the French defense( he also plays the sicilian defense).

i heard that too, but why wouldnt the soviets have played french against him to stop  him??

From what I remember, he considered the Winawer (1.e4 e6 2.d5 Nc3 3.Bb4) as antipositional and did not think it could be sound. And as for any player and any opening, if you think it is pure crap when actually it is playable, you tend to overestimate your position...