He’s a good writer and leader on the technology front. He gets a bit repetitive but that’s because he is trying to get the word out.

He's actually built a career on being an author...

I'm also assuming you only read the headline

I don't think he's necessarily a genius, but he is a force for good and a great writer. We do need someone to keep stating the truth, keep saying what's right and what's wrong, this is literally how we win the information war currently waged against us.

It's the same with the genocide experts calling out genocide, or the eco-activists calling out climate change. It might be obvious common sense to you, but it might not be to other people, and this is precisely why it needs to be shouted from every rooftop we have available.

Oh, and also, if you actually read his works he clearly does more than just state the obvious and coin new terms (even though both of those are important too). He is deeply and intimately familiar with the technical and social structures of the modern internet, his analysis of various phenomena and trends is usually on-point and has some predictive power (it is more dialectical-materialist than most tech journalism out there). Most importantly he offers solutions to the issues facing us, and practices what he preaches too.

What you might think is "common sense" may not be for others. There is value in this being documented, otherwise the person without "common sense" may be influenced by someone with an agenda who does document their thoughts.

Same as when people make fun of "obvious" research, there is value in having it peer reviewed as a reference for future researchers.

Timing. Saying common sense stuff before others gives you an edge and being the first to say it with any eloquence, in a way people want to listen and are accepting of what's being said. A lot of what Cory Doctorow says can be hard to hear or hard to deliver without sounding condescending like NDT. His talent is in the delivery.