Why is Don Rosa so popular?

You may be the only one, or one of the very few ones. Personally, I love everything Scrooge McDuck: Don Rosa, Carl Barks, DuckTales, 50's non-Barks Americans, Italians, Norwegians, French, ALL. I agree that Scrooge's modern-day characterization is a weak point in Don Rosa stories, and that he is more a jerk than he should be if we were to make him a hero, but I personally see him as an anti-hero in his Don Rosa characterization. And anyway, many people think that it's not because the main character's weak that the story as a whole is weak. What makes Don Rosa so popular is the humor of his stories, and (mostly) his DRAWINGS. His art style with all those comical details in the backgrounds is very pleasant to look at for most people. A third reason could be his "consistency mania" with all those Barks references: he relies on the fan, geek-spirit, and it works.

In the end, I agree that he usually misses the point with his Scrooge, but his stories have enough qualities unrelated to Scrooge himself to make them stand out all the same in the eyes of many.