You're right. The bands in question are very different. Queen was imaginative with their stuff, but it was always rigidly structured. The Who jams out more imo. Less structure, more jamming. All of the players in The Who always seemed to be reaching for spotlight, especially Keith Moon
I just prefer the more loosely structured music, and that definitely reflects in my tastes as they stand now. When I write, I tend to loop the background stuff and improvise until I find something that I like, as opposed to sticking in a sequence of notes that I know will work. I'm not saying that that's what Queen did, I'm just saying that I like to jam