The key is, there's not just one type of show for your needs. Same with music and food.
If I want piano - Ben Folds; guitars - The Smiths etc.
If I want just plain laughs, no thinking, just sitting down and enjoying. NGO is ideal. So is Friends or King of Queens. If I want a strong story and lots of clever plots inter-weaving - Seinfeld or One Foot, and Fraiser at it's best.
The Royle Family has a great maudlin feel, but you have to be in the right mood of course. I don't this type of show should be compared to a compltely different sitcom.
There's so many types of sitcom and I don't think one is any more valid than another. It's great when laughs are matched by real depth (did anyone see the One Foot episode last night when they were stuck in trafic? Pure genius, but with such a melancholy ending with Victor's summing up of life) but a gag-based show, which TV has lacked for a long time, has a place too.