Just because you’re a musical genius and CAN play a million notes per minute, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
All three of the guys you name are just into musical self-gratification—getting off on how exceptional they are musically with no soul or feeling. After a few minutes of them, it’s worse than listening to a Bruce Hornsby piano concert for 3 hours. I’d rather listen to Hillary sing.
Give me Carlos Santana or Robin Trower, or so many others who are just as gifted, but actually feel the music, and express more emotion in 10 notes than the million notes those other guys play.
And then there’s Eric Clapton, who is quite probably the most overrated well-known guitar player on earth, no better than the original 1,000 blues guitar players before him, and worse than the 10,000 blues club players after him.
To each his own.
I was influenced heavily by each one. Eddie for his tone and fretboard tapping. Rhoads and Yngwie for their classical style.
Anyway, my theory is that Clapton murdered Duane, Jimi, Roy Buchanan, SRV,..... Every player that came within his sphere met with a terrible accident. Some weren't fatal. Like Becks car accident (which, incidentally produced the finest all-time angry rock guitar album, "Rough and Ready"). Peter Green barely survived a massive toxic drug OD. Beck and Green weren't supposed to survive. Clapton has no soul. Not to mention he stole Georges wife.
Honorable mention for most under rated: Robby Krieger