Wellington's Victory and the labeling of "BAD" music

I am currently reading Beethoven's Ninth: A Political History and I came by a very interesting quotation regarding a piece of music that was discussed in a class I took last year. We in the class were discussing music in times of disaster. I chose to talk about (and subsequently submit a bad essay) on the validity of the 1812 Overture... But that's a whole other story.
Our professor went on at length about how people take the 1812 Overture and Beethoven's Wellington's Victory as bad music and how bad music should be taught just to show that even the greatest composers make mistakes.

To that extent this quotation struck me as being odd:
"The last hero is summoned from his retirement to return to the world to accomplish his mission; this 'second time,' when the Ninth Symphony will form a pendant to Wellington's Victory, will have the dramatic force of prayer"

This comes from the part of the book that is describing the situation surrounding the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, which was supposed to take place in London. Many artists, fearing the embarrassment that Vienna would suffer, protested so that Beethoven would premiere it in that very city. They often cited the Battle Symphony as a great triumph... Maybe Wellington's Victory is only bad music to us here in the modern world who know best....

Would make a good dissertation.

MB