I implemented something like this as an alternative to the OpenId logins when I was at Fast Company. I believe it's still in use there if you click the person icon to login at the top right, select other options, and then "send me a one time link". Try it out?

We did this because we had people that didn't have Twitter or Facebook logins and needed to use some service that we had. I didn't want to build out a password database so came up with this work around.

Surprisingly we didn't receive that much hate mail about it, and we have a fair amount using it per day, so I'd say that people like it.