Nice way of putting it gball.
To be honest, I put Nickelback on a higher pedestal then Foo Fighters - and before you all start slamming me because everyone likes to act like it's sacriligous to dislike Dave Grohl because he's supposed to be 'the nicest guy in rock' (which is bs, there are a ton of super nice people in rock, including the guys in Nickelback), Nickelback got to where they are with A LOT of hard rock. They tarted in 1992 or something the same way a lot of bands did, playing covers and peppering in originals at paying gigs. They didn't actually put out a major label album until 1999. They toured their butts off consistently and even when they got big they always treated the bands they brought out as openings acts with respect and took good care of them.
As for DG and the Foo Fighters, they got big right from the start due to the nirvana attachment. People were buying their first album when it came out looking for clues and songs about kurt. People went to shows to see the drummer for nirvana. It just so happened that they had good songs too, but I highly doubt that they would have been AS BIG had they not had the nirvana allure and attachment to them.