Joe Walsh, who I love jumps back and forth from good tone, great tone, crap tone. When he plays songs that were recorded with great tone, he has great tones, and so on. So I guess he just likes to experiment with his sound and do things his way. I respect that, but sometimes his tone is just plain weird.
Joe is the reason I picked up the guitar.
I agree with Santana too - he's kinda the supper treble or super no treble, nothing in between.
As for Clapton-I agree with everything you said-but the guy can still revert back to classic, good Clapton tone when he chooses I guess. Here is an example.
I think it's the same guitar-different era with what could have become a great band.