The KCH is such a prestigious award, partly because of how wide a net they cast for so few honorees each year. If you look at it, traditionally, the five honorees each year are usually split evenly between Film, TV, classical music, jazz, popular music, dance, and theatre. There is also such a pedigree of unquestionably-deserving recipients in the past that even just asking "is [so-and-so] worthy?" is a kind of demerit to their chances of receiving it.
Carol Channing is a wonderful performer, but there's just such a high bar for this one.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.