I’ve read three of her novels, and a number of her essays, and I’m not one of her cult. I think you underestimate her influence on conservatism. BTW, I’ve also read Buckley, Milton Friedman, Bill Simon(Sr.), Robert Ringer, and some Hayek.
Let you in on a secret...reading Hayek, for the most part, is better than camomile tea if you’re having trouble settling at midnight.
And Rand was a decent essayist. She was writing for an entirely different audience, then. Much more accessible...and she remembers what paragraphs are for.
There’s a small, hard-core, unthinking cult here on FR that rose around her about 2002-2003 or so. A real bunch of loons, then and now. You’ve been around long enough to remember their rise and ceaseless noise, hm?
Most of her followers are barely literate. I love flushing them out; they’re so easily irritated, but not very clever.