I suspect that these "unreasonable Dave Arneson fans" are so few that they're completely inconsequential. In contrast, there seem to be many unreasonable Gary Gygax fans who completely dismiss Dave's contributions, and their view seems to have become the prevailing notion among old-school gamers.
I think Dave Arneson should be credited as the originator of D&D and fantasy role playing, certainly in terms of being the first game master who ran a fantasy role playing campaign and established many of the core mechanics, rules and concepts that are used across countless RPGs to this day. But Gary codified many of Dave's rules, took the game much further, and was largely responsible for bringing D&D to the world as a published product. As I've said elsewhere, I think Dave was the initial innovator and the creative mind that sparked it all (with considerable help and contributions from his players), and Gary was the rules lawyer, publisher and game designer who took it from there and led D&D to success (with plenty of help and contributions from his players and many others as well).
Let's hope a more balanced view becomes the prevailing one.
I think Dave Arneson should be credited as the originator of D&D and fantasy role playing, certainly in terms of being the first game master who ran a fantasy role playing campaign and established many of the core mechanics, rules and concepts that are used across countless RPGs to this day. But Gary codified many of Dave's rules, took the game much further, and was largely responsible for bringing D&D to the world as a published product. As I've said elsewhere, I think Dave was the initial innovator and the creative mind that sparked it all (with considerable help and contributions from his players), and Gary was the rules lawyer, publisher and game designer who took it from there and led D&D to success (with plenty of help and contributions from his players and many others as well).
Let's hope a more balanced view becomes the prevailing one.