I think, first, it's hopeless to compare the relative worth of different genres of music. There are people doing interesting stuff in every field of musical, even the ones that seem to get dismissed outright here--like rap, trance music, modern jazz, etc. Like everything else, the good stuff is not the stuff you get to hear, unless you're willing to dig around and look for it.

Record companies (and, for that matter, companies that market ART in general) are so sophisticated these days that it gets harder and harder for someone doing good stuff to get exposure without compromising and becoming what the execs want them to be. And record companies get away with putting out crapola because the overwhelming majority of people don't care about music in the same way that people around here do. They'll buy it and listen to it and sing along to it when it comes on the radio, but when it drifts away to that Big Pop Graveyard in the sky, it's hardly missed. And there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone doesn't care deeply about most things, but enough people care about really interesting music to keep it alive.