Drums are near and dear to me since I've been playing them for 15+ years now. My personal opinion since you can argue rock drumming forever is there is about maybe 5 total Rock drummers ever that come near the high level jazz guys.
At my current stage of learning and what I personally observe jazz is the pinnacle of musical development. The Charlie Watts's, Ringo Starr's and John Bonhams of this world are like comparing WWE Wrestlers to Marathon Runners.
With that check out around the 3min mark and watch an over 70 Buddy Rich completely destroy just about everything about drums...
Buddy was an ASSHOLE!!! Fuckin' killer drummer but as a person he was an ASSHOLE!!! (check for the recordings of him melting down GetBig style....in the truest sense of the word!)
Now for the drumming, I agree with you. However, since I play guitar (using many many styles but blues and jazz are my forte's) I think it really depends.
In jazz, it's very much cerebral music-especially at the beginning. Learning theory-not a must but helps- practicing and what is put into it takes time and patience.
Rock, same thing, on a different level. Sure you learn your theory, practice and play play play. But what comes out is completely different.
In blues, if you learn two scales, you've pretty much got the whole idiom covered, except what separates the men from the boys is the feeling/experience you put into it, and what genres you focus on. Coco Montoya is NOT blues IMO. However, somebody like SRV still is yet he still plays with much more of a rock base than Muddy Waters.
Kurt Cobain sucked when he came out, but I listen to him now and enjoy some of his stuff. Random point.
It's all apples and oranges (or grapefruits and bananas) on what style you play. But I do think jazz is one of the most complex and difficult forms of music to play.
Great jazz drummers:
Ben Riley, Art Blakey, Smilin' Billy Higgins, Buddy Rich, Donald Bailey (I think that's his name, played with Hampton Hawes), Philly Joe Jones *all of the Joe Jones'!!!*, and so many more.
When all the guys hit a groove, it's phenomenal. Listen to some of the early Roost/Blue Note recordings of Bud Powell and that band grooves like nobody else! Same for the Hampton Hawes Trio recording (and to a lesser extent though still mind-blowing, listen to the Hawes stuff recorded live in Hollywood when he was a late teen/early twenty-something).