In the same vein, I am always annoyed when posts call our highest researching songs as "burnt out" and "overplayed".Which is, you must admit, good for people like me who program gold-based formats exclusively. The one thing I disagree with you about is your choice of words in "beat over the head tirelessly". It is obvious from the continued listening patterns that they do not feel that way, and -- opinion or no -- you're insulting them.
We play "those songs" (whichever they are in each format) often because our listeners "can't get enough of them". In research, our listeners say those "burnt out songs" are the ones that "make us turn up the volume" "sing along" (maybe out of tune!) or "hum along". They are songs that "mean something to us, and we love them".
I suspect that those that accuse us of playing "burnt out songs" have never been in a station music test process or participated in perceptual research.