"Simon Phillips was probably the best drummer they had technically ..."
SP has great chops, but you can't reduce him to just that, he is really dynamic on the drums, delicate in one moment, "CRASH!!! BANG!!! WALLOP!!!" in the next, he communicates with his drums to the music he hears in a way only Ginger Baker can (to be fair, I hear a lot of Ian Paice in SP too, that is why I found his drumming style on his sophomoric work with Judas Priest and the 1st David Coverdale solo album immediately appealing). He has heart and feeling in his playing and a very musicianly ear and enthusiasm.
Of course Moonie was an original, no one can take that away from him. It was Cozy Powell who once said about him: "Keith Moon wasn't really a very good drummer, live he was all over the place, the double bass drum was mainly show, but he contributed enormously to the perception of the rock drummer and we all thrive off that."
And when he died something died with The Who they could never resurrect. Kenny Jones - a fine drummer in his own comfort zone - was an incredibly ill choice as a replacement. JAE (for decades schooled to ignore what Moon did and get on with his bass playing instead) just played "over" Jones as if he were a drum machine.
Good as he is, SP one thing cannot: drum with a West Coast feel. Any version with him drumming the Rosanna intro makes me wince. For some reason, only the late Jeff P could do that right.