Of course its right that he only averaged 45 overall, but then the 50's weren't the best era for heavy scoring - of his peers that I mentioned only Peter May bettered 45 - Cowdrey, Dexter and Graveney all fell short
From what I have read all of his contemporaries fully appreciated how good he was - Trevor Bailey once suggested, I think in all seriousness, that it was the fact that he was neither good looking, tall or athletic that counted against him!
Personally I think he tends to be overlooked simply because the cricket played in his era was so dull - that match in 1964 that I mention is obviously an extreme case, but that is the way cricket was played then - the 1963 series against the WIndies was the one exception - the Ashes series of the 50's are still talked about so Hutton, Compton, Lindwall, Miller etc still get the recognition they deserve as do the Chappells, Lillee, Greig and the like from the 70's when the cricket got better again - but the likes Barrington, McKenzie and Davidson tend not to because no one talks about the games they played in - if it weren't for what he's done since I suspect Richie would be in the same boat