Jim i would refer you to his first album. His renditions of the traditional songs of his own country are exceptional.
In the thing about amplified buskers, I said five minutes ago. That Dylan along with Pete Seeger used traditional forms to articulate our feelings of helplessness in the Cold War period. To say that an artist has not understood a song form - when they can rewrite Nottanum Town as masters of War - recorded by dozens of artists like Nina Simone. This clever stuff and we could do with a few more people misunderstanding traditional forms.

Just for that I would rate him as an important artist. i am not an aficianado of Dylan, and I appreciate the correctness of what you say Jim - it was a relatively short time in his career. but then so was Picasso's blue period.

For   my money he lost his way when he jacked in folk music. He was original and very influential, and the folk music bit was his most creative period.