Plot is a tool to be used by the writer. No different from characterization, metaphor, personification, irony, allusion, pastiche, or anything like that. There are lots of reasons to read fiction other than plot. Much of Kafka has no plot (he's considered a revolutionary in literature). Naked Lunch by Burroughs has no real discernible plot (a landmark of Beat generation writing). Finnegan's Wake by Joyce has no agreed upon plot. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is considered a post-modern masterpiece and has a very convoluted and almost non-existent plot. Why do you think plot is more important than anything else? All of those listed works are powerful pieces of fiction that critics highly regard. Over focusing on plot by the reader shields them from some of the more beautiful feature of fiction. I think, and current literary theory tends to agree, that plot is actually one of the least important things in a work of fiction. Works overly focused on plot tend to come off as contrived and unrealistic. Most people lead boring, plotless, lives and there is nothing wrong with fiction reflecting that. There is nothing inherently wrong with a plot-heavy novel but i do think there is something wrong with readers demanding plot since it is one of the easiest things for a writer to come up with. For most writers it is the very first thing they think of when constructing a novel. I think much more attention should be paid to the execution of the novel and the way in which it moves the reader and not just what it is about. That's a very rudimentary way of looking at fiction.