Actually, the closeness of this poll shows the sheer lunacy of it. Both bands are legends, and belong in the hall of fame. KISS (along with Alice, Sabbath, and Skynyrd) will probably never get in because some of the panel have personal vendettas. That is absolutely insane. MTV dot com of all places had a nice article about it.
For me, KISS wrote better tunes in their hey day, and put the spectacle in "arena rock" Alice may have done it first, but KISS are the ones who inspired the shows we see by Maiden, Priest, VH, and now Slipknot.
Both bands have broken the "suck rule." But I'd still take "Revenge," "COS," and "Pyscho Circus" over anything 'Smith has done in 20 years. Plus KISS Unplugged, and KISS Symphony did a great job of showing that behind the make-up and the bombast, Gene and Paul or two of the most prolific songwriters since Lennon and McCartney.
The reason I took offense to "Greg's" comment is that there is no way in hell you can call KISS soft rock. Do KISS, even at their lamest, sound like adult comtemporary????