Actually, another Eddie is the first rock and roller (aside from Les Paul) known for having modded his own axes -- Eddie Cochran.
In my mind there is a strata of elite game changers in the realm of electric guitar, and EVH is the last one, along with Hendrix and Les Paul. I would also add Charlie Christian. Sure, some might argue that some shredders since have innovated a bit stylistically, notably Yngwie for bringing the neo classical thing to the forefront, but that is more or less content, nothing as massive a leap forward as EVH brought to the table on all fronts.
There is not one shredder since who I would rather listen to, because they don't have a fraction of the authentic rock and roll swagger or originality of EVH, and just sound tedious by comparison. Yes, cats like Govan have jaw dropping chops, but they don't bring the fire and excitement EVH does. They lack that impetus to rock the fuck out and they lack that genius vision.
You've got to consider demographics and the state of the music industry in the case of this sub though. I remember my older brother (guitar player) coming home from a Sabbath show in the 70s and freaking out about the opening band. Said they had a guitar player doing shit he'd never heard before, but the guy played with his back to the audience so he couldn't make out what the fuck was going on. When VH1 dropped it was like an atomic bomb. You knew it was a game changer. In the context of the times it was revolutionary.
But I would wager that demographically most readers here were born in the 90s, so that context isn't there. And the industry has changed drastically since then. Music is heavily balkanized into bands that play strictly one style, so from a modern listener's perspective, Van Halen gets retrofitted into some category like "hair metal" that didn't exist when they came out, and so they languish there unappreciated. Hipsters don't know how to handle unabashed rocking out. If it isn't ironic, they are embarrassed or something. I dunno. I'm an old curmudgeon.
I do see people discussing the "brown sound" occasionally and stuff though, so all is not lost. Recently a popular post was a GoPro vid of Eddie showing some classic riffs, so it's not like he gets zero play, just not as much as he probably should.
Then again I am some anachronistic blues guy, so what do I know? This is the kind of shit that ends up on /r/lewronggeneration/