I agree completely with both of these posts. You have to respect Rush not only for their longevity, but also for their musicianship. Hell, I respect plenty of bands I don't particularly like. But I don't like many I don't respect. (Does that make sense?)
And I'm of the opinion that, for the most part, stuff that is incredibly good usually has a limited audience. That is, stuff that is massively popular is usually not of outstanding quality. Of course there are exceptions.