Well, okay, if you insist. But first, since when are most television viewers idiots? My guess is that most television viewers have just as much good sense as television viewers Casey Abell and Chris Lemon...if not more.
Anyhoo, Lingo offers the best play-along value of any game show I've seen, with the possible exception of Jeopardy. At least, it gets me talking to the screen more than any show except the Trebek epic. The scoring system is well designed to allow comebacks and tight games, especially since they went to five and sometime six puzzles in the first round for the third season. The bonus round is very fast-paced and ranks well in the history of the genre. Not quite the Winner's Circle, but not very far away. (It's anti-climactic no more often than the last twenty seconds and the post-mortem of the Winner's Circle are anti-climactic.) The icon host keeps things light but doesn't step on the gameplay.
The routine trashtalk about Stacey has been hashed over so often on the GSN boards that it's hardly worth another look. She handles some bookkeeping and smooths transitions between puzzles and on the judging decisions. I don't mind her at all, but her role is so minor that complaints about her always strike me as not so much wrong as just beside the point. She certainly hasn't affected gameplay in the third season.
By the way, since you put Blockbusters in your top twenty, I'll give you my Select Score:
Match Game
Lingo
Family Feud
Jeopardy
Millionaire
Pyramid
Wheel of Fortune
Russian Roulette
I've Got a Secret
Newlywed Game
Cram
Greed
Win Ben Stein's Money
You Bet Your Life
Love Connection
Scrabble
Remote Control
Dating Game
Name That Tune
Beat the Clock
Easy to see that my tastes run toward quizzers, interview shows, word games and stunt shows. Comedy is always helpful, which means Match Game and Family Feud get in, though they don't quite fit into any of these categories. FWIW, I voted the top dozen for the recent GSN Feast of Faves, and saw six come home winners.
My biggest blind spot is probably shopping games, which leads to my biggest heresy, the omissions of TPiR and LMAD. No offense to Messrs. Barker and Hall, who ran (and run) these shows as well as anybody's ever run any show. But relentlessly shopping for bargains and deals has never fascinated me in real life or video life.