Again, think in terms of Jerry Seinfeld. He clearly has limited range. But he was incredibly successful and popular. Someday he might try a series again and could be successful and popular at that. But it would be quite foolish to expect the character he would play to be vastly different.
Another comparison is Bob Newhart. Incredible success with two series (and a short lived 3rd one) but not a significant difference between his acting in the two series. I love watching him to this day. His appearances on TBBT were generally good to great. He won an Emmy … for basically being Bob Newhart.
Having a limited range is not a bad thing if you get cast in roles that match that. (Which is a large part of good casting anyway.)
So I give a 75-word précis of her post-Friends work, to which you reply “I think she was the most successful,” and “She was.” … but my argument is not compelling.
You discount her independent films as not successful because they weren’t big commercial films, then you discount her commercial films as not successful because they lack artistic merit.
How about this: She was successful with her independent films because they have artistic merit. And she was successful with her commercial films because they were financial successes.
My issue is that you say he can’t act and can only play some version of himself, and say so on what seems pretty slim evidence (appearances on talk shows). Of course, there are lots of successful show business people for whom that is largely true, but I’m going to disagree with your view about Parsons, especially pending future acting gigs that he might be willing to take. The only other things of his I’ve seen are a fairly small role in Hidden Figures (without facial tics and mannerisms that you point to) and the preview of some awful cartoon movie where he voiced an alien or something.
I’ve also seen Hidden Figures. I was mentioning talk shows to point out how close Jim Parsons is to Sheldon in terms of voice and behavior. So his other roles don’t matter in this regard. And things like Hidden Figures again do not suggest a wide range of acting ability.
Which is not the same thing as saying he is terrible!!!
I don’t recall his character in *The Normal Heart * being anything like Sheldon in behavior or speech. ( I means the character had Jim Parson’s voice, but not Sheldon’s tone etc)
And the thing with Seinfeld and Newhart is that they weren’t actors- they were fundamentally comedians playing a version of themselves. Newhart was always the one sane man in a group of quirky people , whether it was Newhart, *The Bob Newhart Show *or TBBT