They DO deserve to be in there. However, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Emerson, Lake and Palmer deserve to get in. Yes, I know of the "trodden entries over the past few years". I pretty much ignore the whole thing entire and chuckle annually when I see the nominees.
Or Steppenwolf, or E.L.O, or KISS, or Moody Blues, or Foreigner, or REO Speedwagon, Warren Zevon, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, etc, etc....
My list of who should be in the R&R Hall of Fame ahead of some of this years nominees is a long one.
So yea... it's kind of a joke.