Nobody suggested Unforgiven was a poor film because Clint Eastwood had already made two revisionist westerns with High Plain Drifter and Pale Rider. I don't consider that the fact that Scarface was determinedly unsentimental invalidates Goodfellas as an anti-dote to romanticism of The Godfather.

incidentally, the first two Godfather films are firmly lodged at the top of my best ever film list.

I still think you're missing my point that what I'm criticizing with Scorsese's later career, and GoodFellas is a good example, is not a question of competency or ability to entertain. I'm not saying "Bad filmmaker, incompetant filmmaking." I'm saying that the heavy plaudits he continues to earn aren't in line with the work he creates. GoodFellas was not a bad movie. But it wasn't groudbreaking or original, either. It was good moviemaking. But that's all it was. I'm arguing against the superlatives. His current work is not the work of an artist at the peak of his craft. Yet people write about him as if he were. That passed decades ago.