I've played a few Strats, and they sound pretty nice (my first and only electric guitar so far is a Squier Strat, but i have a nice acoustic; Guild DC-1;$worth near $1000), but as somebody said above that they do sound a bit generic. I played my guitar instructor's LP yesterday (Epiphone Les Paul, but it has 2 F holes, its a discontinued model, worth a bit of money) and it was excellent. The actual neck radius is 2.5 inches larger, but the fretboard is smaller, it seems (at least to me); with fenders being 9.5 and LP's being around 11 or 12.
Im likely to buy an Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty (3 humbuckers!)
Personally i could care less if they are more respected, if you get the tone that you want out of one of them but not the other, does it matter which one is more respected?
Interesting topic though.