Last week, when watching Amazon unveil a fresh lineup of Kindles and Kindle Fire Tablets, it occurred to me that few people have changed how we purchase goods as much as Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon.com ( AMZN - Analyst Report ) , has.

The company now thoroughly dominates the e-commerce landscape and is shaking traditional big box retailers, like Best Buy ( BBY - Analyst Report ) , to their very core. If that wasn’t enough, AMZN is also quickly making inroads in the tablet market against Apple’s incredibly profitable products, while it is also taking aim at Netflix ( NFLX - Analyst Report ) by offering a streaming video service as well.

Meanwhile, the company is also supposedly developing a phone which could help it to compete with Apple ( AAPL - Analyst Report ) again and especially Google ( GOOG - Analyst Report ) . This could leave the search giant in a rough spot, especially if Amazon continues to peel away sales dollars from advertisers who see their customers forgo Google searches for queries directly on Amazon.com instead (read Three Great Tech ETFs that Avoid Apple).

Seemingly, Amazon is taking on all the biggest names in tech and it is doing so with a relatively risky strategy of loss leading products, such as selling Kindles below cost and giving customers absurd values in the ‘Prime’ service with two day shipping, free books, and streaming for $80/year. While this might be questionable in the long-term, one thing is for sure, it has greatly reduced the cost to customers, improved quality/choice, and it has irreversibly changed how many Americans buy not only books and groceries, but how they think about retail in general (see the Guide to Retail ETFs).

Yet despite this contribution, Bezos is rarely mentioned among legendary company managers like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett and is instead, largely overlooked, at least in my opinion. Even upstarts such as Mark Zuckerberg or leaders of (relatively) unimportant companies like Yahoo! with Marissa Mayer, receive more press than Bezos, a mind-boggling situation if you ask me.

With that being said, it probably doesn’t help that the stock isn’t much of a value at this point, as the company has a forward PE of 336 and a Zacks Rank of 3 or Hold. Meanwhile, the earnings trend isn’t exactly favorable, while the firm is also expected to post a loss for the current quarter.

Still, while the company might not be a great investment at this time, it is hard to argue that Bezos is a transformative CEO that doesn’t really get the credit he deserves for reshaping the American economy in his own image, a situation that is becoming increasingly puzzling as Kindles become more ubiquitous across the American landscape…

What do you think? Do you agree that Bezos is the most underrated CEO in America?

Or is there another person more deserving of this honor?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!