I love The Who. I cannot rationalise it, they just click with me. Doctor Jimmy has the best bass playing I've ever heard and Love Reign O'er Me has the best singing. Added to that are great lyrics and arrangements, like Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again. Play them loud and they are as heavy as Black Sabbath. Indeed, I think I Can See for Miles (1967) is an early heavy rock track, in that they really belt it out. Apparently, Pete Townshend prefers the term power pop and, in a TV interview, he described 'progressive', in the context of Tommy and Quadrophenia, as a derogatory term (they both seem very progressive to me).
Pete Townshend, like Keith Emerson, seems a bit of an unbalanced genius in interviews. However, when I saw a show at The Young Vic, he did sign an autograph for a lady friend of mine during the interval.
When I watch footage of The Who playing at those hippy festivals of the late sixties/ early seventies, they transcend everything and blow everyone else away (and they are great bands). By the time I saw them live, they were out of the clubs and in the big venues, but Roger Daltrey was still very dynamic. Admittedly some albums are in need of editing. The Quadrophenia soundtrack album, produced by John Entwistle, is more concise than the original.
I like Roger Daltrey's early solo albums a lot, although they are not like The Who, and Pete Townshend's Rough Boys is strong enough to be a Who single. Although John Entwistle has passed away, I hope The Who, ie. Daltrey and Townshend together, continue for a while longer.