How can a milquetoast, humble, good-but-not-great player like Smith get people this riled up?

Dude was taken first in a weak QB draft (23 teams passed on Rodgers), played bad on some bad teams, mediocre on some mediocre teams, and pretty good when he got some good coaches and a solid O-line. But his team finds a future superstar and it's time to ship him. The story is not that complicated.