I think you are mistaken about E.T. It is a film of profound depth about many things, but more than anything it a crystalline examination of how pain and love are inseparable. It's also a modern fairy tale about not judging by appearance. Neither of those themes are explored in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is also about the pain of divorce in a far more potent way than anything he'd directed up to that point.

I honestly think you should give it another watch with fresh eyes. No arguments with the brilliance of Jaws or Close Encounters, obviously. :)