"Especially critical of Mark Farner's guitar playing."
He sounded self-tutored, so what? If that rules out his musicianship, then you have to discard all the blues greats too.
This might be inviting double entendres, but there was something very throbbing and organic about GFR, clinical they weren't. And they had more groove than a lot of heavy bands of the time. Coming from Flint, Michigan, was good for something.