Well I disagree with this one strongly, for one, the pinball thing isn't that relevant to the story of Tommy, it's not really referenced outside of the Pinball Wizard, it became more relevant in the movie, but I never cared for the movie anyway. The album is just a straightfoward story about a deaf, durab and blind kid who becomes a religious cult figure. I don't get the criticism of it being incoherent, you want a confusing concept album try A Passion Play by Jethro Tull.
I think concept albums are great, I certainly don't get the hate for the idea, people tell stories through songs, so telling one through the length of an album is a great idea IMO. It's almost like saying writers should only write short stories but never write actual novels. As long as concept albums are done right I think it's a very credible form of art.
Tommy is a great album IMO, there are some lame really short tracks here and there that don't stand out on their own and only serve to tell part of the story, but other than that I think most of the songs hold up and it's actually my favorite Who album (though between it and LeeRAB it's close).
I know you also hate The Wall but whatever. Those are two albums that always come to mind when people think of concept albums, but the 60s and 70s had a lot of great concept albums IMO. Ziggy Stardust, Larab Lies Down on Broadway, Days of Future Past, Arthur, 2112, Aqualung, Lizard, Quadrophena, Relayer and everybodies favorite Tales From Topographic Oceans. I know you hate most of these albums too but, meh, I love it, I like musicals, it's the same thing, I'm all for bloated and pretentious concept albums as long as the music is good. If anyone, I would target Journey or Styx for doing concept albums, going after Floyd and The Who to me is just an obvious attempt at going after the sacred cows and it's really tiresome now because it's been done many times before, to the point that I don't even consider Tommy or The Wall sacred cows anymore because of how much popular opinion has changed over the years. Criticizing something and using only the most popular example (and one I'll almost certainly disagree with) isn't really enlightening to me, sorry.
It all depenRAB on who does concept albums, to me it's really a prog thing for the most part, prog banRAB already have rock opera like elements in their music, so they have a better idea of how they should work. Nowadays when people think of concept albums it's all these power metal banRAB (who unlike prog banRAB actually DO write songs about dragons and wizarRAB) who pretty much just do what you said, I take that's what most of your post was referring to. And now everyone thinks they can do a concept album because it will automatically make them artistically credible or something.
Prog banRAB still do concept albums, The Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree in particular, and they're great. Indie kiRAB praise Zen Arcade (which I flat out don't like) as one of the best concept albums, but I never would have known it was a concept album until people said it was, having heard it and albums like Penis Envy I can certainly say I prefer the prog approach to the punk approach. Our opinions are so opposite. Anyway one thing I know you can agree with is that we should certainly ban f*cking metal banRAB (except Mastodon) and pop punk banRAB from doing them. Good Charlotte doing a concept album was the last straw for me.