I agree with Jbaent
of course music is not a competition/sport etc..., but when you think "slide player" it's obvious that MK si not the first one that cames to mind
Ry Cooder, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Ben Harper, they are the names I immediately think when I think to "slide players" (Sonny Landreth has very good technique, but I do'nt like him, he is too technical, not enough soulful for me, but that's only my opinion of course)
the point is not to judge musicians, but is to have an "objective" point of view when you look at the whole rock history so to say.
It's like if you said : MK is the best wah-guitar player because he used one on it never rains, wag the dog and early bird. of course if you have to name a famous wah-guitar player, MK is not the one. the same for slide.
when I think to "fingerpicking on electric", MK is the first one that cames to mind, followed by Chet Atkins and Ry Cooder, but also Robbie Krieger.
And now, many guitarists plays both pick and fingers (Clapton, Bonamassa, etc...) while during the 80s, MK was mainly the only one (among famous popular guitarists)
Val's opinion is another thing, it's about personnal taste, not about "critical view" so to say. Saying you like something is not contradictory with saying it's poor, or it's not the best, etc...
I am always atohnished by the lack of objective point of view by some people.
DS/MK is my personnal favoriste artist, but it's not a reason to rate them/him as "genius, best, etc..."
On the contary they are many artists I don't like, but I would rate as milestones in music history
So, Val's opinion is totally compatible with Jbaent's one : Val talks about what she likes, and Jbaent about how he rates Mark's slide playing