His crosses are "no better than the standard good winger"? His dribbling is "no better than the standard good dribbler"? And we've seen "plenty of defenders deal with him in a relatively easy fashion"?
And in summary he has "nothing there really makes him stand out at all"?
Oh well, excuse me but we must be watching two entirely different players.
No, those features you speak of don't really make him special at all. You seem to think of him as one of the best wingers in the world, but his crossing or his dribbling wouldn't make him that, would it?
I'm not saying that Bale can't cross, because he can, but his crossing isn't as good as you seem to think it is. If it was as good as you say it is, then I doubt he would have finished on a number of league assists that I would be able to count with one hand.
Bale is a good dribbler, but I've seen plenty of players deal with him, relatively easily. On those occasions, he wasn't able to use his trickery or his dribbling skills to exploit the defenders. Tightly mark Bale, and he will struggle to deliver, if you perform your role well. If his dribbling was so good, would it be that simple for a defender to stop him?
Now, I'll admit that Bale is a very good winger and he has recently started to live up to some of his hype, however he's nowhere near as good as you seem to make out, and you do also seem to overrate some features of his game.