I understand your consternation. I feel exactly the same way about the "monalisa" or "gioconda" the famous portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci which is considered to be the greatest painting in the world and here and now I can name a thousand better. But I admit that such feeling originates in lack of information. Someday I will research the monalisa.By the way, I like also George Orwell, I presume that besides "1984" and "Animal Farm" you've also read "shooting to an elephant" if you havenĀ“t, you should. I think that Orwell's literary production is very insightful, very well written and all but Shakespeare was by far a more universal, prolific and resourceful writer.
Personally, I am very fond of Shakespeare. No kidding! I have learnt by heart a number of lines from his diverse plays which has been a challenge since I am Mexican and is quite complicated to read his old fashioned style when you are not an English speaker (you might find mistakes in my writing)
I can tell you why "Shakes" is what he is said to be
1 He wrote about diverse themes in diverse styles from romance and tragedy to antisemitism and comedy and in all he excelled .I mean, his tragedies are charged with poetry and dramatism and his comedies can really make you laugh. Therefore, he was a very versatile author.
2 In his plays he showed how he mastered the English language, he used puns, poetry with deep meaning; the lines have a certain cadence that is not prose but is not mawkish poetry either is the iambic pentameter.
3 A lot of his characters make very clever remarks about politics or love or royalty or loyalty or death or anything.
4 Most of the lines in his plays are worthy to be learnt by heart