The meaning of 「酷い言われようだ」 seems (to me) to be something not very different from 「酷いことを言われた」.
e.g. それが今やサラリーマンとは「会社に飼われる家畜」なんですってよ。まったく酷い言われようです。
My questions:
- Is my interpretation correct? Did I miss any nuance?
- If the 「酷いこと」 has already been said, why was the 「よう-form」 used?
- 「言われよう」 seems to be treated as a noun phrase here, since it's modified by 「酷い」 and followed by 「だ」. I've never seen a 「よう-form」 used as a noun phrase elsewhere. Is it a common usage?