I never drew parallels between Gaye and Thicke, but then again, I haven't heard anything by Thicke other than that one song with the video people are in a tizzy over.
Great write up, I completely agree with the assertion that Marvin Gaye's singing is more enjoyable and approachable because of his vulnerability. Otherwise, his singing wouldn't be as believable. I don't believe Robin Thicke, but I believe Marvin Gaue.
I was a bit surprised to learn that Thicke's song wasn't a joke, along the lines of Richard Cheese but drawn as a more serious take. I mean, why else would a guy named "Robin Thicke" have a huge sign in his video about how big his cock is? My list of things I don't understand grows by the moment . . . if it were an appendix, it would burst.
I don't know, that was just me hazarding a guess at why Miguel didn't get a huge amount of attention (or maybe he did? -- I'm really bad at judging what the music industry is following at any given time because I utterly reject the music industry as it currently exists) and Ocean, who's relatively similar, did.