paul:The thread of this discussion I think is not leading to a list directors who have captured mass attention, but directors who's work is all over the place from commercial schlock to really groundbreaking work. So, it's a list of top five directors who may have one or two great films overshadowed by a cloud of other more commercial movies.
Therefore, I included Zwigoff in my list specifically because of Crumb.
Being that as your thread idea. Then I can see why you chose him.