Having lived in the bay area during the golden age, I have seen many many great guitarists. None come close to Gilmore. None.
No one remembers 200 notes per minute, everyone will remember one note done very well. This concept made the Beatles, and McCartney enforced it. Simple is remembered much more and longer than complex.
It's not how many or fast you can play, it's about the notes you choose and what you do to it to bring it to life. You may remember how the solo traveled, but not every step.
IMO - Gilmour is the "Hook" king. These notes grow roots in our heads.
Go back to "On the Turning Away" video and stop it at 5:02.
To Gilmour's right-hand side, behind him, looking through the cymbals.... you see that huge 3 rack wall of gear? That's is his guitar FX rack. You see pedals and 2 gtr tuners on top right, the rack is also full. I setup and struck that rack for a Gilmour solo show that was all PF tunes at Chicago Auditorium, the best sounding room in the country IMO, the best you could see him in this country.
That's not the type of gear you tweak in a weak and get all these sounds, that is DECADES of being consumed with achieving that exact sound for that exact song. He doesn't carry a lot of guitars like Clapton or Bonamassa, just several. He has a rack that allows him to be what ever he wants.
I find it at least borderline impossible for anyone to copy his exact tones, even if they owned an identical rack... the options are infinite, you won't just stumble upon that exact setting on your own.
His playing is one thing, and most everyone can copy,... but inventing those riffs is thinking on a different depth than many. Those notes live and breathe.
Ultimate Guitar
" Warren Haynes Names Biggest Challenge of Playing David Gilmour's Pink Floyd Solos: 'I Feel Like I'm Stuck in Third Gear'
Warren Haynes reflected on covering Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" with his jam outfit Gov't Mule, and explained one of the key personal difficulties when playing David Gilmour's material.
Fans of Warren's blues extravaganza will be familiar with "Dark Side of the Mule", first released as a live album recorded at Mule's gig at Boston's Orpheum Theatre in 2008.
Well, the guitarist explains that one of the greatest is practicing as much restraint as Gilmour (transcription via Killer Guitar Rigs):
"That's a challenge, to play with that much punctuation. For someone like myself, who... I'm not an over-animated player, but compared to Gilmour, possibly. But to play with that much punctuation, it takes so much restraint. I feel like I'm stuck in third gear.
"But that's what he does so well. That's why all those solos and hooks are embedded in our heads like they are because his sense of melody and his sense of space is just fantastic."
"But I never did go and learn them. That's kind of not my thing. But I'm very influenced by that stuff. So it comes out in a way that at least I think is appropriate." "
read more -
https://tinyurl.com/yedb2er4In short, he couldn't pull it off exact. IMO. He doesn't have the same rig, nor knowledge to run it..