It's not about his 'playing', it's about the songs they wrote together, and his contribution to them. You make it sound as though his being in the band was coincidental to the band's success. Or that they would have been successful (or 'good') with another bassist, who would of course have contributed something different to the band. Bands or groups of musicans that work well together are a kind of alchemy. What they bring individually adds up to far more than the sum of all the parts. They don't have to be very 'good' 'musicians', whatever those two terms may actually mean.
Hooky's bass lines are certainly not 'average'; what does that even mean? Surely root and fifths or whatever is an average bassline. Hooky had a different kind of simplicity to his role in songs. It's most definitely not average.
How much JD/NO do you know?
I'm not getting worked up, by the way. It's an interesting thread, and your opinion is just as valid, or idiotic, or misguided, or spot-on, as mine is.