Working directors are always in a tricky spot when debating all-time greats for a few reasons. The biggest issue tends to be warped perception -- there will always be the naïve young fans who think "X Current Director" is the greatest of all-time. That then leads to a backlash from cinephiles who subconsciously diminish how good the director actually is to compensate for some 14-year old kid who made a thread on imdb. As such, it's often not until the director stops working that he's given the mainstream respect he deserves.
Oppositely though, and perhaps equally interesting, cinephiles will often overcompensate and over inflate the greatness of older directors. I am confident that I've been guilty of both of those psychological blunders at various times over the years.
As for your question regarding where Inarritu stands, I think he deserves relatively high placement. He's directed only six films, but they're all great. In fact, I can easily argue that Inarritu's worst film is better than any other director's worst film throughout film history (director's with at least six films). That's a very impressive achievement.
I keep a running, dynamic list of my all-time favorite directors and Inarrittu currently ranks #20. Considering his small filmography, I can understand why many film snobs might look down their nose at me, but I'd argue that they're probably not being very honest with themselves.
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