Is Chuck Norris overrated as a martial artist?

No he is not. He may be over hyped due to the jokes about him. But Chuck Norris trained in Tang Soo Do in Korea when he was assigned there during the late 1950s while in the Air Force. He may not have fought in full contact matches, but knowing the type of martial arts training prevalent during his time, he probably underwent more rigid training which would probably be considered physical abuse by your school's standards today to achieve his black belt. You must also remember that the american martial arts community was pretty small at that time, so some of the fighters he fought during those "light contact"(I put quotation marks because they're light contact only in name but were anything but light contact back in those days) tournaments you mention like Joe Lewis, Tony Tulleners, Steve Sanders, etc. also fought in full contact matches. It was only after he became Champion that he was offered roles in movies one of them being as Bruce Lee's nemesis in "Way of the Dragon" which basically brought him to fame during the 1970s Kung Fu craze after Lee's death. Also unknown to most people, Chuck has been training in Brazilian Jujitsu under Carlos Machado since way back in the early 90s, way before BJJ became the "In" thing to do. So your second to the last sentence about: "...he is only good at "tapping" guys" is true if you meant he makes guys tap out. As for your last statement about him being a movie star and nothing more. That's your opinion, who would people rather believe? Your personal opinion which has no basis other than what you see in movies or countless respected martial artists around the world who know him and recognize Chuck as a pioneer and legitimate martial artist?