I knew a German vet who fought in North Africa and Italy. He despised Rommel. Said Rommel was only concerned about his own self-promotion, and wasn’t above sacrificing troops to look good. (Which seems contrary to many histories of Rommel, but not to this old veteran).
He liked Kesselring and thought very highly of him. Said most of the German troops did, too.
A very good study on Rommel that focuses on this aspect of his personality is Ralf Georg Reuth's "Rommel: The End of a Legend".
This is a very critical look at the Desert Fox which portrays him as a favorite of Hitler who took advantage of that status to achieve maximum personal gain. He even theorizes that Rommel most likely did not know of the Hitler assassination plan that was going on within his general staff toward the end of the war because, despite the fact that he had become somewhat skeptical of Hitler's decisions, he was still a die hard supporter of the Fuhrer and would have turned these men in had he known about it.
It would be interesting to learn which of the German commanders were most admired by their old non-coms, and how close their list would match ours...
War-time propaganda aside, I still would have thought Rommel near the top of such lists.