It's the 1 song that shows that the Beach Boys didn't need Brian... so people were against it from the start.

That is entirely untrue. Your point about them stepping back into their cliche as opposed to abandoning any progressiveness is EXACTLY why they still needed Brian. There was never a point where the Beach Boys didn't need Brian he is the only reason any of us know their name today. This song epitomizes why Brian was so important.

I like it though.  Great song in every way, well written, well recorded, well sang, and catchy.  

I study music and have am trying to figure out on what basis you are saying it's "well written". Can you explain a little more? Cause I always thought it was poorly written.

I see some people mentioning how it's "ridiculously catchy". To suggest that this is what makes a song good is borderline offensive.

Kokomo uses an incredibly boring and derivative chord progression. The instrumentation is cheezy. It sounds like the commercial music for Sandals Resorts or something. The song was written in 1988 when Mike Love was 47. I mean come on there's absolutely no sophistication whatsoever. Brian was writing more sophisticated songs than this when he was 19.

It's not arbitrary that people love Brian and hate Mike. Brian was brilliant and Mike rode on his coattails. Kokomo to me is like the 1988 equivalent of a Katy Perry song or that "Call me Maybe" song that's really popular right now. Catchy - yes. Good music - no.

I dig "WIBN"

Real nice walking bass line in WIBN.

I think:

Good Vibes
Rhonda
IJWMFTT

And I think it's easy to overlook CA girls but I love that it's like swaying back and forth within the chord.

Of course the Beach Boys are arguably one of the best and most critically and commercially accepted and respected American bands of the rock era. But I really can't help thinking that a lot of the reason why the average person doesn't look at them as "revolutionary" like bands such as the Beatles or Led Zeppelin is because they were not ever really known for playing their own instruments. The fact that none of them (except Brian) are ever individually credited for much at all. You never see any of them individually on any lists for Greatest (Drummer, Guitarist, Songwriter) which kinda leads me to believe that even tho the music itself may be respected, that they as a band in all are not universally accepted as a huge band (like the Beatles are). The Beatles did of course use session musicians but all the drums, bass, and guitar and production techniques were done by them. Or any other band really, I just say the Beatles because of their extensive popularity with basically everyone. But do you know what I mean? Do you agree?

No.  I doubt the audience they were playing to in the sixties even cared.  As far as today is concerned, The Wrecking Crew is still highly respected by music fans and it's understood what they brought to the records of The Beach Boys and many of their contemporaries.  It would be ridiculous to assume that music fans think less of these bands because they utilized the best musicians available to them to enhance their records.  As far as casual music fans, you can file them under the first group of folks I spoke of.  Most casual fans don't spend time dissecting who played what on "Wouldn't It Be Nice".  They either enjoy the song or they don't.

This is right along the lines of what I was going to say.

But on a separate note to the original post, that points to a larger issue with musical appreciation - that its limited to playing instruments or singing on the track. Most people don't know or care about the production side of music (which now is like non-existent). The Beach Boys are amazing because of Brian's superb arranging and producing. They could have had any reasonably talented bands playing in the studio and have been just fine.