<< I can't understand
why anyone would still subscribe to the credo that Macca somehow
operates on some other plane above everyone else as a recording
artist.>>

I don't subscribe to this credo.  And I don't think most of the others
here do either.  But I (and I think many others here) do subscribe to
the credo that Paul (and the other Beatles) did at one time operate on a
plane above everyone else, and nobody else since has reached that plane.

<<At this point I view Paul McCartney as a very good songwriter and
recording artist ... but, given his highly-erratic success rate, I can
think of numerous other people I rank above him in both of those
categories.>>

OK, I'll bite, who's better?

Gary