Hard to say who won ...

... Cheever vs. Cheever.

There is in Kerouac’s Dharma Bums a sneering appeal to

take a walk some night on a suburban street and pass house after house on both sides of the street each with the lamplight of the living room, shining golden, and inside the little blue square of the television, each living family riveting its attention on probably one show.

This is Main Street in Cheever Country, but Cheever saw it as an object not of scorn or disappointment but of love and fascination, a place to be understood and protected.

I don't think there is anything sneering in Kerouac's "appeal." It's an accurate description of what was going at the time. You can deplore people being glued to the tube without disdaining the suburbs and those who live there. After all, there is a good deal more to life that what can be found on television.