If it is what the music asks for, that is what the music asks for, I personally don't like it but if I was in a recording situation with that, I have to do what I have to do to stay employed and still record grooves and-what-not that I would prefer to play later on.
For me, solid is the number one thing for being a successful drummer, all the good drummers on the drummerworld.com homepage are solid drummers often making their careers with session drumming. Even those chop heavy drummers you see on that page (basically your Portnoy-esque drummers) are solid, no use being fast if your not in time, control-before-speed is what they stick to, they just choose to drum differrent styles...but that is personally taste (just like I don't like the dissonant colour of pop music but I like the epic-ness of heavy metal and prog rock).
I feel terms like these aren't descriptive enough:
"...reflection of the power this beat..."
"...in the hands of a drummer who's really feeling it..."
"...making it sound better..."
"...got a good feel..."
Remember that the money beat is very generic and plain with a drum machine, when you put a human drummer in the equation and the play it differently to another human drummer that is what makes it sound good. It can sound good for a number of factors:
Pocket - Basically the drummers relation to the beat (is he/she ahead or behind the beat and how much). The most preferred idea for a good pocket is when you can't hear the metronome even if your not bashing the hell out of the kit.
Solid - Basically the more solid a drummer is the better. Less tempo and less pocket change (unless the music requires slow down or speed up for tension and release etc.) is preferred. not solid = not good = no gig
Quality of Sound - I believe it is a factor, making the sounds sound good, pretty simple. If the hi-hat or ride sounds good and the bass drum sounds good and the snare drum sounds good (considering all other factors are at least session drummer standard), people will naturally say:
"Hey, that's good!". However superficial it is, it is like marketing a drum kit, normally more marketed drum kits (ie. Tama Superstar, Pearl Export etc.) sell better than less marketed ones that hardly anyone knows about from brands that don't have a good reputation (...generally).
Sometimes a drummers skill and ear comes into this as well as studio mixing and tuning.
Dynamics - Ah, this is often what you refer to in your vague terms.
Quoting my self from an earlier post:
...playing loudly really limits your dynamic range, playing moderately gives a drummer room to use a range of different dynamics (louder and softer with more sensitivity etc.) and helps the studio engy with less unwanted overtones resulting from dented pinstripes.
...and links to Quality of Sound (yes, capital S)...mixing and what-not might turn so good when you play ridiculously loudly as the norm.
Okay, these are the reasons why session drummers still get employed.
I want to be able to do all that with grooves (not just the moneybeat). Groove is an aspect to playing the drumkit and being able to do all that plus being at least moderately technically proficient and creative is good for someone who wants to be a session drummer.
If someone can do all those money beat aspects well, using those factors for other simple Chad Smith-esque grooves, groove will come much easier than if you didn't start somewhere simple and solid at first.