@gaara:
Couldn't agree more with you there. At this point, the underdog theme feels artificial. It really kinda shits upon the theme when you have the strongest being in the series behind you. Plus, Naruto has already accomplished half of what he set out to do, which would be gaining everybody's respect and recognition.
While I can't argue with most of what's been said about Naruto lately, the bolded part if a little incorrent. Actually, it's more like he's gained the respect of the people directly around them. Naruto want's to be Hokage to be respected by his entire village, and he hasn't done that yet. You may be thinking that the win agaisnt Neji would do that, but think of this:
Do people really repsect the Rock, or John Cena, when they're cheering his name? At the chunnin exams, those ninja were seen as combatants, but the crowd clearly didn't care about them. They probably forget about Naruto after Sasuke just like they forgot about Shikamaru. So no, Naruto really hasn't accomplished his goal, though he's made progress after making people like Tsunade and Kakashi respect him.
As for the quality, I blame the fact that there must be nothing driving Kishimoto to try harder, I don't have any stats, but it seems like Naruto is doing well enough despite the art and such. Hell, not everyone cares about the art in the manga they watch as long as it has other things they are looking for, like action and plot twists. That's why some of Toei's anime's are so successful.
I was around when DBZ was playing, and at the time I loved it. But looking back, that anime was 60% crap. However, it was cool moments like the death of Freiza or defeat of Cell that made me forget about the last episode where two people punched each other really fast yet nothing happened.
As for Lee, after thinking about it, no, his way isn't exactly right–hard work alone can't help you surpass geniuses when many of them are in fact working hard themselves. If anything, Lee's goal should be to hard work and become a genius as well. After all, like Kakashi said, apparently it takes a "genius" to open a gates.