However, I must admit I struggle to find much of a spark of genius in his music.
No, certainly not genius but supreme craftsmanship, charm and a consistent desire to provide his listeners with a melodious musical diversion - criteria enough for me to warrant German a place in my collection! I agree entirely that he was occasionally prone to lapse into what almost amounted to a caricature of his own idiom (the curse of 6/8 time, especially the jig, and certain predictable harmonic sequences) which reached its nadir in the comic opera
A Princess of Kensington (1903).
IMVHO the peaks of British music run Dunstable-Tallis-Byrd-Purcell-Sullivan-Elgar-Vaughan Williams-Holst-Walton-Tippett-Britten-Arnold-Maxwell Davies (a very personal choice I know and no doubt open to adverse criticism), but there is surely room to explore and appreciate the Eton Choirbook, Taverner, Fairfax, Gibbons, Boyce, Arne, Potter, Sterndale Bennett, Balfe, Loder, Cellier, Mackenzie, Parry, Stanford, Cowen, Wallace, German, Bantock, Coleridge-Taylor, Brian, Hurlstone, Holbrooke, Boughton, Bridge, Foulds, Bax, Boughton, Scott, Harty, Bax, Dyson, Bliss, Howells, Finzi, Rubbra, Alwyn, Arnell, Bate, Rawsthorne, Fricker, Cooke, Jones, Hoddinott, Williams, Hamilton, Wordsworth et al. and to listen with pleasure whilst accessing a wider conspectus of British music.
As several members may recall I tussled in vain with the moderators of a certain other forum, as did several others, over their seeming obsession with "genius" and "masterpieces": I think that the quotation which is at the bottom of every one of my posts speaks for itself...
if you don't expect a Saint-Saens or a Rachmaninov, you should be able to turn to his music from time to time for variety and enjoyable listening
Quite: every listener has their own favourites - some concentrate on the mainstream international canon whilst others enjoy exploring the music of a particular country, a specific genre or a certain historical period. In every case there will naturally be greater and lesser contributors. It is a wonder of the CD/ digital era that such a wide diversity of repertoire is now available for us to access (should we wish to)...
