I think you're reasoning behind him not being overrated is wrong. You're basically praising him for being loyal, that has nothing to do with the fact that he is overrated as a football player.
Don't get me wrong here, he's been a good player and a great ambassador for that club. When I say he's overrated, some people call him the greatest post-war Italian player. If that's the base, is this even a discussion? As a "great" football player, he never in 23 years did something of note for that club in the CL. Clubs like Dortmund, Monaco and Deportivo have been to CL finals. When he first made it to the quarter-finals, he choked badly against United twice.
Scholes, Giggs, Gerrard, Maldini, Zanetti and Del Piero? Sure they all played for bigger clubs, but they also delivered at the very highest stage under intense pressure for their clubs. I can't ever recall Totti playing under intense pressure for Roma. He's been great for a club basically being OK with finishing top 4 every year. He's a terrible leader, or as Rudi Garcia pointed out, he is no leader, just a quiet "example". And since he's a die-hard romanista, that makes it reasonable to blame Juve for your failures? Del Piero post-calciopoli didn't mention a word about Inter or anyone else, that's what you call class.
Overshadowing Dzeko? Even Zaza would overshadow Dzeko if that was the case. Totti overshadowing Dzeko says more about how terrible Dzeko is than Totti's quality.
And at last, the comparison to Zlatan. Again you're comparing their loyalties, in that case Totti is way above. But give Zlatan 23 years in Rome and he sure would've delivered 10x more to them than what Totti has.
I respect that you admire his loyalty, we all do, but he is overrated as a footballer. For a club like Juventus where finishing 2nd is basically a total failure, he would've been shipped out a long time ago (even the great Del Piero was eventually). And if he'd left for Real Madrid I do think he would've flopped as well. One thing I do give him credit for though is his contribution to the Nazionale. He only had 58 caps but was very good particurarly in the 2000 and 20006 tournaments.
See again I partially agree.
I'm praising him for being loyal AND for being a good player.
He's won one Scudetto and two Coppa Italia (and had a ridiculous number of runner-up finishes), but at his peak he could have left and probably won far more titles elsewhere.
Roma are a mediocre club, and I'd argue that the one of the reasons they've even been close to success over the past 15-20 years is Totti. Sure, they haven't won much, they've only come close a number of times. But they probably wouldn't even have been close without Totti.
I agree with you about being a leader, and that was kind of the point I was making about criticising Juve. He's the embodiment of his club, as Ale is the embodiment of ours. Ale is classy, calm, collected. Totti is hot-headed. I'm not defending the fact that he blames Juve, I'm saying he's a Romanista, that's what they do. It's a failing of theirs and his, but it's part of what ties him to that club.
I don't agree on the Zlatan point, if Totti had spent the peak of his career moving around the best clubs in Europe I'm sure he'd have won a lot more, and I don't think Zlatan would have won the CL for Roma or anything, maybe another Scudetto if Roma had him instead of Inter having him.
I think I'm right in saying he's the second top scorer of all-time in Serie A, so I don't think you can say he's overrated, in fact you could argue that he didn't win as much as he should for the talent he had (and still has, though he's obviously on the way out now).
I also agree with your point about being shipped-out as Del Piero was, but it honestly still rankles with me a little the way Ale was treated. Clearly he shouldn't have been our starting striker, but we ended up getting Bendtner on loan that summer... That 2012 Scudetto had a lot to do with Ale, and similarly Totti is showing that he still has something to offer for Roma.
I guess part of it is growing up with guys like I mentioned who were one-club (or close to it) men, and it feels like Totti is kinda the last of those (along with probably some of the current Barcelona team).
It's like if Totti was born as a maths prodigy, and got offered a scholarship to go to Oxford University, but he stayed home to look after his retarded brother.
Maybe he'd have failed at Oxford, we'll never know. But it's admirable that he looked after his retarded brother, and that retard probably wouldn't have managed to get through pre-school without his help.