Idk about deserving more respect but Dwight had a very respectable if not short-lived prime and a memorable Cinderella like playoff run in 2009.
That said, altho he was better defensively than, say, Anthony Davis... Davis had more clear cut better seasons than Dwight ever did. i.e. from age 20 to 26 (Dwight's last 7 years in ORL)... Dwight's best season during that stretch (2011, 2nd in MVP votes behind Derrick Rose) would be AD's 2nd worst season during the same age range.
You can point to team success and yes, the '09 run was a great story mainly bc of the Cavs series, but obviously KG had a season ending injury and the Pistons were disbanded... so the two teams that sent him home the year before ('08 DET) and after ('10 BOS) left a void in '09.
Dwight gets props for taking advantage of it (you can only play who is in front of you) but of course if we're recognizing team success regardless of context, then the lack of success from 2010 + all the weird shyt that started to come out about him, didn't help his case.