In my opinion it's more the former, as is the case with nearly all of his films bar maybe the very early ones. That doesn't mean they are inherently bad films, but I do think they are often massively overrated by people whose only other regular experience with the cinema or film are the even more mass market, big budget, action films. I would like to think Nolan's films play an important role in bridging the gap between Marvel and Disney slop and the larger film world, which (like any other art form) is too often reduced to the very mainstream stuff where all the money is.

I touched on this in the review thread for this film, but something I find pretty interesting about The Odyssey is that so many people have seen it or plan to see it, yet almost no one has seen or wants to see The Return, despite it being released less than two years prior. They are both based on Homer's Odyssey, but one was directed by Christopher Nolan with a budget of $250 million and starred Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, whilst the other was directed by Uberto Pasolini with a budget of $20 million and starred Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer and Marwan Kenzari in the corresponding roles. One is a film with ~2 hours worth of non-stop violence, fast-paced action and deafening noise so it can explain the traumatic effect of the Trojan War on Odysseus, whilst the other is a slow and quiet film that never shows the war or any of the subsequent adventures/horrors - Fiennes conveys all of that through his acting alone, and since he doesn't speak much it's mostly conveyed via body language and much more subtle directorial techniques.

In my opinion, The Return is a significantly better film but most people will never be interested in watching it or even be aware that it exists. All the praise when discussing modern adaptations of Homer's Odyssey will default to the mainstream Nolan adaptation that was designed for mass market appeal and that everyone has seen. There is a sort of critical mass with the reception of art where at a certain point it no longer needs to be great to be remembered as great. It just needs to be good enough to a large enough number of people who don't have the knowledge or experience to critique it more effectively, and at that point the hype surrounding it takes over and elevates it to mythical levels of fame.