Oooh, oooh, my turn. I've seen David Gans live a few times, always acoustic, both solo and with an assortment of others. IMHO, his playing is very clean, very articulate, and very precise. His voice is clear and strong, and he can carry a tune better than most. What I personally don't hear in his music is much soul.
That being said, the nature of the type of music he does generally doesn't call for that- it's usually more about a direct, honest presentation of the song.
Long story short, not my specific cup of tea, but neither was John Denver, or James Taylor, those kind of folks. I have a limited attention span for it. But to say that he is a talentless hack is quite a reach.
One of the all time great Dead related interview lines, it's in Conversations With The Dead by Gans. He's interviewing Hunter, and asked him what it's like to be him. Hunter turns the table and asks Gans what it's like to live behind his nose ( if you've never seen David, let's just say if humans were reindeer, he'd be Rudolph ).
Out of the loop? I didn't know there was a loop!