Bette Davis was never my favorite actress, although I do think she was a good actress, I personally never think of her as a great actress, I have to check out her filmography and see if anything leaps out at me.
I like your "hoity toity too serious sally assessment" of Miss Davis. "Putting on airs" as my old grandma would have said.
The thing with Bette Davis is what I call The John Wayne School of Acting. It didn't matter if the Duke was playing Genghis Khan or Rooster Cogburn, he was still John Wayne. Whereas most actors become the character and the self fades away. For me it is the same with Bette Davis, she is always Bette Davis. I liked her the best as Baby Jane and Charlotte. Where she was almost a caricature of herself.
And the second funniest thing ever was her Scarlett O'Hara, where she has that green dress made out of her drapes.