DFW may have been a universally revered fiction writer, but his non-fiction writing was less-than-universally revered. See here and here. So, the tally is: successful as a journalist, universally revered as a fiction writer, at best mediocre as a writer of non-fiction books.

There is also some evidence that DFW was in fact not universally revered as a fiction writer - at least, not until David Eggers wrote the forward for the 2006 edition of Infinite Jest. But look, we are talking about David Eggers here.

Having read Thompson and scanned a bit of DFW, I don't quite see the similarity. Other than the willingness to interject the commentary into the reportage, I believe that Thompson in his non fiction (and personal life) was far more willing to be confrontational with and to belittle the powers that be than Wallace.