Quite the interesting discussion...I haven't had MUCH of a chance to do more than browse Stephenson's thoughts (although I am a big fan of his work), and I've always felt split in regards to it.  Before I went PW, I was in the English Writing track, until I pretty much took every writing class I could without going wholly literature-like.
I was always trying to straddle both sides of the fence...to not much success unfortunately.  The English side of me alwasys wants to make at least an underlying meaning to my work and make the observant read-between-the-lines peeps feel happy, while the PW side of me just wants to write something that will make the other 99% of everyone else happy.
I suppose this is kind of turning into a bit of a rant, but I'm hoping to at least do one work that conforms to both sides...I believe it can happen, just with practice and hard work.
Until then...I think I'll just keep my eye on the prize and try to get the money flow going first, hehe.

DCB