My thoughts:
I still think it's hilarious that the iconic Slash Les Paul is a copy, made by Kris Derrig. So all the Slash signatures are Gibson copies of a Derrig copy.
Having said that, I think I stated this before. In my opinion the best and most influential guitar players are the ones who inspire young people to pick up a guitar. When I was young all guys wanted a Fender because of Kurt Kobain, an LP (Epi) because of Slash, or an Epiphone The Dot (335) because of Noel Gallagher. I don't think those guys are the best players, but they influenced hundreds of thousands of kids toy buy those guitars and start band. So especially Epiphone sold a shitload of LPs and 335s. And a lot of now famous bands started because of them. Young guys I know now want certain guitars because of Foo Fighters, QOTSA, .... So in my opinion those guys are better for guitar world and music world than Vai, Satriani, the lot...
No young kid wants (or can afford) a Yin Yang Fodera because of Wooten, a fretless five (six?)-string Warwick because of Steve Bailey, but they want that P/J/Tbird/... because of [insert name current hip bass player] of [insert name current hip band] plays it.
So yeah. Slash is good:)