We've recently had an exchange between Robert Scott of Comickaze in San Diego, California and Marvel editor Stuart Moore.  The exchange was prompted by Scott's comments that Daredevil sales had been hurt by late issues (see 'Robert Scott of Comickaze on Marvel's The Brotherhood'), and Moore responded that the book wasn't late on his watch (see 'Stuart Moore of Marvel Strikes Back on Daredevil').  Here Scott clarifies:

[Stuart Moore wrote:] 'Since Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev came on the book, we have shipped every issue on time, to critical acclaim.  And while the issues immediately previous occasionally shipped a week or two late, the fact is that we published fifteen issues of Daredevil in 2001 on a regular schedule, and one per month so far in 2002.  There have been no 'fill-in artists' and there has never been a 'fill-in...story arc' on the title.  Scott owes the talented, hard-working Daredevil creative team a full apology.'

Stuart, it seems you took my comments out of context or maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been so maybe this will help.  Were I commenting on the 2001-2002 run of Daredevil, you might be correct, however I was referring to the initial Smith, Bendis and Mack runs which were regularly late even with fill-in work.  As I stated those problems with those runs began driving folks away from the title and many have yet to forgive this and start reading the title again.  Because they refuse to start reading the title again they may never know of the Bendis/Maleev work or may just wait for the trade paperback to ensure that they get the entire story in a timely manner.

This is why I placed the blame for under-appreciation on the man (Quesada) who failed to get the books out as promised.  It was tough enough to get Marvel bashers to buy Marvel in the first place but after succeeding in getting them to put aside Publisher (or Spandex) Bias in order to follow quality creators like Smith, Bendis and Mack (among others) we ended up losing them again due to poor editorial control and fill-in books...

There is no dearth of quality material on the market and no reason readers/fans/retailers should be have to be beholden to a publisher who abuses the relationship.  Is Daredevil under-appreciated?  Maybe and it would be unfortunate but then again comics are a consumer item and as such, when you upset the consumer, critical acclaim may be the best you can expect.