I think we're splitting hairs between good writing and bad writing, and not between the chosen POV. 1st and 3rd are really very similar from the reader's standpoint - the stories either work as a narrative, or they don't. If I feel distanced from a 1st person narrative, it's because the writing kept me distanced. Same with 3rd, or omniscient, or any other POV. Engagement in a story - assuming it's the sort of story the individual reader wants to read - is a matter of the author's writing skill, and not the chosen POV. While, as readers, we all have our personal preferences, I wouldn't approach any book with the idea of Oh, no, not another first/third/omniscient narrative... I try reading it. If it doesn't engage, I blame the writer, not the POV... This is true for the tense-choice debates as well. Ultimately, it always comes back to whether the choice works in that particular story, and to know, the story has to be read.