As I've said previously, Rommel was more tha politician than those German commanders who probably outclassed him as a military genius. He was among the better battlefield commanders, which made him appealing to the German people. Had the plot against Hitler succeeded, its likely he'd have been in good standing to become the next leader of Germany. He had the sense to see the encirling doom, as did many other German commanders. That makes him an intelligent man, capable of seeing the overall picture.
You can say what you like about what you think of him on the overall scale of course, but ALL the German Generals had the same problem: never having enough tanks, troops, planes or anything else to work with. He becomes the test against which the Allies are able to sort out how to counter the German battlefield tactics ... in the only field that we were capable of fighting them successfully at that point: North Africa. I don't know of a major overall strategic victory that Rommel can claim foremost credit for. He was good, obviously, but he had a lot of comany with all the other brilliant German military leaders. It could be argued that he was not placed on the Ostfrong because he was not good enough to be entrusted with the titanic battles that were to determine the fate of Germany.
And consider that his genius as a military leader was not sufficient to recognize a good idea when it was presented: Actung Panzer. Blitzkrieg. He remained quite sceptical of the concepts until they proved to be MASSIVELY effective. Lets contrast that with a couple unquestioned military geniuses Philip and Alexander of Macedonia. They see a brilliant idea, the phalanx, but then they see its true potential. So they improve the system and Alexander runs off to use it in his enormous conquests. Nobody had yet put together just how useful it could be as an offensive weapon to go conquering the world. Philip figured it out for himself, and Alexander took that vision and made it a reality. Obviously there was much more to Alexander than the Phalanx as well.
I personally would classify him as one of the top German commanders despite all that. But to me, the category of "Great Generals of All-Time" means that you come up with some tactic or idea that completely revolutionizes warfare and how it is fought. I don't know that Rommel did that.
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