The problem is you still think of The Wire as a cop show when it really isn't. Sure it has cops in it and they do cop things, but they also do very un-cop things like blind a 14 year old in one eye, drink and drive, falsify evidence, and alter corpses. Just like how they show longshoremen smuggle stuff through their docks, politicians doing backdoor deals that fuck over other people, inner city schools struggle with small budgets and a student body with no real desire to become anything, and a news paper struggling to stay relevant in an age where any fool with a blog can call themselves a journalist. It's a show about people and how they affect and learn from each other, while not even being fully aware of doing so.
I'll agree with you that Hillstreet Blues was a very revolutionary show for its time and definitely set the foundation for what the police procedural drama should be, putting it against The Wire is like putting the Los Angeles Laker's record against the New York Yankee's record and trying to see which team is better. They're in completely different parks in what they set out to do.
As I said, Hillstreet Blues is better compared to the shows that took more obvious inspiration from it like your CSI's, your NCIS's, your Law & Orders, your Blue Bloods, your NYPD Blue's.
Given a choice between a pretty progressive albeit obscure cop show from the early '80's that has launched A LOT of crap, and a show that is widely touted as the best show that has ever been on TV, is it any wonder you've got 3 people saying The Wire?
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