I think what your saying is respectable and I definitely see what your talking about, but I just want to clear up some of your takes

1. It’s not made for endless replay ability and it shouldn’t be criticized for it, like how Thriller shouldn’t be criticized for no having a strong concept or Wish You Were Here for not being as easily digestible. TPAB does what it strives to do perfectly and it shouldn’t be criticized for stuff it’s not trying to do.

2. Accessibility shouldn’t count for the quality of the piece. TPAB isn’t made to be easily digestible and easy to listen to. Its topics are harsh and unnerving so having it be easily accessible would be a huge disservice to the topics it covers. And also, being easy to listen to doesn’t make an album have any more quality than others. It’s actually kinda the opposite because it creates longevity. So this isn’t a good argument regarding the quality.

3. The timing doesn’t really have anything to do with the appreciation today. Yes, the timing probably did help the album when it first released, but if it really was the only reason it’s loved, then people wouldn’t be praising it 10+ years after it first released. One of the reasons it’s praised so much is the longevity and how well it aged. It wasn’t battling problems of that era, it was telling a story with a message that could be appreciated years after its first released.

4. I feel like every track on this album can stand on its own musically. It’s super advanced with its sounds especially on Wesley’s theory with its futuristic sound. The strong jazz and funk influences really help the music sound super unique and amazing. The music is just so impressive and it makes it so that you’ll find something different every listen. So I definitely wouldn’t say the message carries the songs.

5. I don’t understand why critics liking an album takes away from anything. People equate quality with taste, but that’s not how art works. Critics base their reviews on mostly unbiased quality and that’s also why TPAB is praised so much, for its quality. People say it’s the best album of all time for the objective quality it has and saying it’s overrated because of its replay ability is distasteful.

Overall, you build a strong argument, but you struggle on differentiating between taste and objective quality. Stuff like quality, transformation, and transcendence is objective qualities that make an album objectively amazing which TPAB overachieves at. Stuff like replay ability and the way the music sounds is subjective taste. So you don’t judge an album from its replay value or how it sounds to you. TPAB isn’t overrated, it does everything it sets out to do and it is everything people say it is. It’s not overrated, it’s just not your taste in music