I agree with you, bro. That's how I always felt about his score and that's not to say anything was wrong with it because I could definitely tell he was sorely missing in spider-man 3, but I just felt what he did for spidey's theme was very generic and even when my friends and I saw it in 02, one of my boys said asked why does it sound so similar to batman...even if you look at the stuff he's done for Tim Burton after Batman, a lot of it sounds the same and has the same feel. I don't think its fair to compare him to John Williams though lol..
To me, here is the definition of iconic: whenever they present Spidey on tv or do any variation of a theme for him, it is all off of the 60s theme, which to this day remains the most iconic piece of music for Spidey because it has been adapted so many times by so many people and used so much and everyone knows it. It's simple, its cathy and Spidey even recites the words in a recent comic