Plenty musicians have made AWESOME music but failed to sell records. And they're largely lost to history. Stevie is so revered in part bc he had a huge machine promoting him. And that machine is known to have resorted to shadiness (payola) and gimmicks to sell records. It wasn't just about the quality of his music. Without that machine he wouldn't have sold so many millions of records and wouldn't have had the opportunities to make as much music and have it heard.

And yes, much of P's image is contrived. He definitely worked the sexy freak thing to sell records. It worked. But he is revered bc his music was of such high quality. Plenty acts worked gimmicks like his but they're lost to history bc they didn't have the music to back up the gimmicks.