Is Aquinas’ fifth way very strong, weak, or do people just have no idea how to understand it?

Whenever I debate and argue for intelligent design, I use Aquinas’ fifth way, which I think is very strong. The way I understand it, it’s impossible to refute without just disbelieving it as a matter of faith, ironically. But when I argue with people, they either have NO idea how to refute it, or they just assert that it is nonsense without demonstrating why. This leads me to think it’s very very strong, but academics swear that it’s very faulty, but I don’t see how. Is it actually a home run for intelligent design? Or is it really just very weak and I think it’s strong?