>>1909048Steve Vai is a more complete guitarist than Jimmy Page, but if you ask me who my favorite guitarist is, the latter without question.
Songwriting ability and creativity have precedence over technical ability and "completeness" as a guitarist. Yngwie Malmsteen can definitely outshred Eric Clapton, but who has written more memorable guitar licks, more music? I love Yngwie, but I'm not going to rank him above David Gilmour or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Shredding and technical ability is not the be-all end-all.
Another example, David Bowie. He is one of my favorite rock vocalists of all time. He's not the most technically proficient, he's not Bruce Dickinson or Morrissey, but he makes up for it in his raw emotion, dynamism, and all of the stellar music he created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DanDvAfCcs 