The ONLY measure of first, second, or third rate composers (or practitioners of any “art”) is how financially successful they are at it.
If they are not selling their work (to the paying public, not to an organization that uses tax dollars to buy “art”), then their work has no value.
Sebastian Bach was a pretty good composer; he presented a portfolio of unique works to the Margrave of Brandenburg to try to secure a position with him; they sat in a drawer unplayed; he could only get a job at a church where he had to teach unruly boys. He was largely unknown.
Wolfgang Mozart died in debt, his wife had to try to make money off his manuscripts, his body was thrown in a mass grave. He’d had to scrabble for anything he got.
By your standard, they were anything but first rate.