I imagine every award Stephenson wins allows him more freedom from editors, and now if you don't enjoy his work, society insists its somehow your fault. You must not be smart enough to enjoy fictional histories of cryptography.

And don't get me wrong, the works of his I've read are set in imaginative worlds, amazing yet somehow just a hyperbolic version of today. It's just that the rejected Wikipedia articles that come along don't much serve the world building or narrative.

Snow Crash is my second favorite Stephenson book (The Diamond Age is my favorite). I can see the validity of the literary criticisms of it -- but it still hits a sweet spot for me, and I have enjoyed it just as much every time I've read it again.