There seems to be a consensus on this. Sounds like something to check out if I can find it at a major discount, but not otherwise.
It is purely an adventure of the week. You have read it before, and will probably read it again somewhere.
Because you are saying that there are some authors who can write stuff that the reader may not care about or may even dislike and yet that reader should follow them regardless of all other factors.
No, I am prioritizing for the creators and their work over branding.
I am less a fan of Byrne than I was 5 years ago. (He was good for his time. But, he has not aged well and has too much of a fixation on the Silver Age and stasis quo.) However, plenty of people do like Byrne. He had has "faithful 50", roughly 50,000 readers who would follow him to and from various books in the mid to late 80s (as evidenced by sales numbers).
Those readers figured that if *Byrne* delivered the goods on one book, he would deliver on another. Nobody knew or cared about "Next Men" in the late 80s. But, people followed Byrne to that book because they wanted to see what he could do.
The only reason I gave "Uber" a try was because of Kieron Gillen. (And, when I saw how much he conformed to Avatar Press' house style, I dropped the book. But, damn, his Germans are fun to read.)
The difference is that I didn't buy just any old Transformers comics, I only bought the smart ones, MTMTE and RID, and once a book lost its way I dropped it (RID/TF). There is plenty of stuff I won't bother consuming just because it's in the brand.
And, you said you would not follow a good writer off of TF to another book because the other book did not have the right branding.
Yes, branding (either by publisher or license) matters.
There are differences between Marvel and DC. (The traditional differences are eroding. But, there are still differences, mostly in the form of Marvel having better planning and direction.)
"BOOM!" studios tries to coast on licenses and high concept art books (like that one using public domain heroes a few years back) while producing anemic comics.
Avatar Press goes for cheap shock value, even when it undermines the concept of a series (.....fucking ruined "Uber" goddammit stupidfuckinghavetoget Klaudianekkidinthefuckingannual).
But, the comics are good, or bad, because of the creative teams. I do not care about Iron Man as a character. But, Kieron Gillen did good things with that book when he was on it. I do not care about "Axis". But, Tom Taylor did a good job on "Injustice" which is enough to make me care about his current run on "Superior Iron Man". (Still need to get caught up on that one....)
Similarly, I used to like "Star Wars". Then, the good:bad ratio tipped too far towards bad. It might have been Ostrander. It might have been Lucas licensing. I did not, nor do I, care. Comic sucked and I dropped it. After a few years of not being impressed, I dropped SW completely. Given how tightly controlled it seems to be at Marvel/Disney, I am not likely to get back in. (The "Rebels" show is not likely to get me, as I rarely watch TV and am not likely to get caught up on much of anything.)