You didn't see that last tour, Lynott and Gorham were limp with drug addiction, Sykes was an overzealeous puppy that - during his shred solos - had issues wagging his tail in time (his bad timing continued with Whitesnake). But it's not fair to rate them on the basis of that last tour, their nadir as a band.
Now don't worry, our musical tastes aren't that far apart at all. But wouldn't you like to hear what EvH could do with, say, Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, Myles Kennedy and Geoff Downes? VH (his brother) seems to be his protective, retrogressive foil.
I saw Flying Colors - that potentially prog nightmare outfit of Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Dave la Rue and the non-prog more indie wonderful singer whose name I have unforgivably forgotten. Except for one song where everyone showed his undeniable chops, it was not widdly-widdly at all, instead it was hugely catchy and melodic with everyone going out of his way to leave the other guys room. And Mike Portnoy, rather than doing a drum solo, sang acapella with Neal and the lead vocalist which had more to do with Crosby, Stills & Nash than with the - to me - live horror of Dream Theater. It was a warm corteous (Portnoy: "Thanks to Neal for letting me ruin his songs by talking me into singing them!") joining of musical talents.
Sometimes, trying something different can take you somewhere. I would love to see EvH in a setting like that with all due respect to the milestone he created with VH's debut some decades ago. Does that make me an intellectual?