I think most readers can be divided into two basic categories. Some of us are very story driven. We might want characters, and great descriptions, but if we keep scratching our heads wondering, when anything is going to happen, we get bored with a story. Others might enjoy stories, but they read book for qualities you can't really find in say movies or TV; they want vivid descriptions, they want characters they know better than their own family and they want interesting use of language.
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Of course Sci-Fi throws a monkey wrench in it all, because there are some readers of that genre who read it for the scientific ideas
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I am definitely in the first category. I was able to get through Neuromancer, but it is hardly a book I would feel compelled to read again.
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Bill