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There's a difference between "literary merit" and common "readability." If you have an ear for language (and a lot of readers don't, which can be a blessing), then a poorly written book will scree-scraw through your head like barbed wire being pulled from ear to ear. Imagine not being tone deaf and listening to a grade school band. Even if they're playing Mozart, it's bound to be a painful experience!
Many people are tone deaf to language. I don't mean to put them down, but it does mean that they can enjoy badly written work (and no, it isn't purely subjective any more than a grade school band is subjectively as good as a professional orchestra) as much as well-written work, responding to other things: plot, amusing dialogue, if it addresses their fantasies, whatever.
I don't find Dan Brown's work to have literary merit, and I don't even find it readable. But a lot of people love it, so that's fine for them. Many people would be appalled at my tastes in various things and it doesn't bother me. You like what you like.
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