I can see that argument, but I don't think it applies so completely here. The art of Spidey wasn't what originally made it so popurlar. The art of spider-man isn't nearly so important as the story. All of which WAS made by Stan Lee. Same with Daredevil. a little less so with characters like Captain America, and MUCH less so with X-Men. But even with X-Men, what visual elements of Jack Kirby's work are they using? Almost none. All the characters look different, they don't use the same colors even. Again, the main ideas that are being used in nearly all the Marvel films (aside from the Blade ones) so far are almost entirely Stan Lee. I think if there had been different artists doing these stories originally, the movies probably would have been made substantially the same. Thus I think it only fair that Lee gets some recognition in form of part of all this cash everyone is making, because they're using HIS ideas to do it.
And I notice that you avoided my question by trying to alter it. I think the premise of my question still stands. The ideas, esp for Spider-Man, are substantively Stan's and no one else's. I think this is only fair and the charge of whining is way off the mark. Sure he's got some ego, but if you ever read the marvel editorials or letter columns when he was writing them, you'd see that what comes out it mostly just the public personality he always put forth, and it seems much less egotistical than nearly any interview i've seen with writers and directors and actors of successful films.
edit: I talk too fast. I reworded the first few sentences to actually be comprehensible.
in addition, yes, it's fair to note that people like MacFarlane and Ditko carried this characters to new places and were very important in their development, but they're only doing what they did because Stan Lee did first. It's all DIRECTLY traceable to him.