Not really. We all know the bandwagon is a powerful tool for making things popular. There’s a reason CBS finds a way to declare all of their shows #1 at something for their advertising, they know there’s that crowd that doesn’t want to miss the boat. The myth of Shakespeare perpetuates the myth of Shakespeare, as long as he is held up as the pinnacle the world will support the idea that he’s the pinnacle.
Funny that you led off your list with Homer since there’s a good chance that there was no such guy but actually a bardic tradition that built the myth of the man. A myth which now perpetuates itself in the same way.
The Iliad and The Odyssey were either written by Homer or by another guy with the same name. It doesn’t matter. The Homeric tradition comes from something very tangible....two epic poems. That’s what I was referring to. If you think Shakespeare doesn’t ‘live up to the hype’ or whatever then what writer would you suggest replace him as the basis of English Lit. And the way the Academic World is structured these days, the hip thing to do is not to repeat what’s been said before but to debunk and put up someone else that you discovered on your own. Shakespeare has withstood this sort of thing.