I interestingly came to a pretty similar conclusion about Kerouac around the same time as this reviewer, and brought it up in my review of Henry Miller’s book on Big Sur (which I can highly recommend): https://kamranjon.com/writings/henry-miller-and-the-big-sur....
Was about to comment, anyone who finds themselves bouncing off Kerouac could do worse than read Miller. The latter is more like your first torrid love affair versus the former’s first giggling glimpse at a porno mag.