Jimi would have been another clapton by age 42, still playing the same feedback and poor vocals.
Jimi, was bored of the whole x1 trick pony show. He was tired of just using the Pentatonic (x5 tone blues scale) with some occasional wandering into the aeolian mode. he wanted to explore the entire modal system, learning to play over changes & go more places with his music. He was hooking up with Miles Davis just before he died (this, sadly never happened).
Clapton has stuck to the same old shite, pop & blues.
Jimi, rocked the music world with his approach, & IMO would have continued to do so even if it meant leaving the conventional power trio & R&R behind.
I think he would still be a pioneer
PT