Dylan is a historian. Tempest is filled with sounds & styles that shouldn't be popular in 2012/2013, but Dylan is keeping that stuff alive. His throwaway early '90s stuff, the traditionals, are half-assed contractual obligation albums, but are brilliant at the same time. I love his take on Sittin' On Top of the World, & bringing You Belong To Me back into the vogue on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack was a brilliant move. He was essentially retreading what he started out doing in '63, & still had an impact 30 years later. (The Flat Duo Jets recorded You Belong To Me & Frog Went A Courtin', which Dylan did on Good As I Been To You, on Go Go Harlem Baby a short while after, & that record was a huge influence on Jack White early on. Jack got the rights to reissue it on vinyl last year.) And you can't beat his Theme Time Hour radio shows.
I love Neil Young for being a crotchety old bastard, & for putting out some damn good tunes, & I think his later stuff is more vital than Dylan's (which comes across as fragile at times), but I'm a Dylan guy through & through. I think Dylan's excavation of roots music is tantamount to Neil's fidelity crusade, for sure. The parallels of their careers are pretty insane to think about, it really comes down to personal preference, I think.
For the record, I don't think who was more experimental or who pissed off their audience more should really play into the argument. But it doesn't get any more contentious than Dylan turning around & saying "Play it ****ing loud!" after the bro calls him Judas at Royal Albert Hall. Levon Helm quit the band because the tension was too much. It was shortly after JFK's death & they literally feared getting shot on that tour. Watch any of those documentaries... the Pennebaker doc covers the whole tour, I don't think Neil ever alienated his fans like that.
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