While on the surface, album sales should be a good indicator, it really does not reflect quality. Pop musicians will always outsell real talent, because pop music is what the major of people like, hence "pop" = popular. I think we can all attest how brain dead the majority of humans are.
I like a lot of the bands you've mentioned, but where they fail in comparison is flexibility. How many of those groups improved their songs over time? How many have a musical made after them? How many could control live crowds of 100k+? My biggest complaint about the Beatles is they were a boy band for years and years before becoming the great band they ended up being, but also they were notorious for being awful live. The Eagles always played their music the exact same as the record/cassette/CD/etc... What's the point of hearing them live?
Again, I'm not and never will argue popularity as a tool for greatness, as even in my own world, the biggest sellers each year is fluff shit and great music is now being pushed aside by publishers for music that sells big; it's a disgrace. Queen + whoever is still playing to sold out venues without Freddie, which says a lot about their music. Had Freddie still been around, they would have just killed one of those Super Bowl half time shows.
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