Personally, I think it's one of his best films. It's also one of my best films of the last decade or so.
re: EWS/Kubrick's death. No real, solid connection. Filming and editing had long finished with only a little sound editing to be done, according to one report. One rumour, probably rubbish, is that Sydney Pollack had joined the cast not just to act, but to take over the reins should Kubrick keel over during filming.
re: A.I. Kubrick never intended to direct, only act as a producer. It's been suggested he would be returning to his Napoloen project as Spielberg worked on A.I., which would've been something. I should mention that after his death, Spielberg reworked A.I. considerably, so it's him, not Kubrick, that's to blame for that particular disaster.