There were a lot of people who seemed bothered by LL's success. They might criticize him, rightly or not, but they weren't really humble enough to recognize that Dad wasn't succeeding or failing based on what they thought.
I'm not a Clive Cussler fan, but I can see why some people love his books. He was the same as Dad in so many ways. He LOVED what he did and that love exploded form every page. He had a lot of energy and he had an ability to transfer it to the reader.
If someone is popular, and you don't get it, it's probably you.
Personally, my only issue with Tuska was that (in my opinion) I don't think he understood the book business very well ... either that or he was quoting or learning from people who didn't understand it all that well. But I'd have to re-examine a bunch of stuff he wrote to dig out the problems and correct them and I just don't have the time.