Bottom line is that Lynch needed more time and more creative control to make Dune everything it could've been. What we got is weird and beautiful, and I suppose the reason so many people love it is because they're able to watch it and see all the potential it had. Somehow, that lets us forgive its shortcomings and enjoy what we did get.
I hope someday we get a Dune feature film trilogy from a great director, but even then, it would be hard to top the visual style established by Lynch.