I don't see the facination with Guthrie, hes good but not really in the elite division of players yet. I've not heard him play any non fusion stuff yet, maybe if he can play some good rock I will like him better.
I'm not a fusion fan and prefer "good rock" but have to strongly disagree with you on Guthrie. He has covered many styles in Guitar Techniques/Lick Library etc. He usually does all the more difficult Steve Vai / Paul Gilbert tutorials. In the Winter GT issues there was a readers poll of the Best guitarists (covering all fields). Winners included Eric Johnson, David Gilmour, BB King, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, EVH, SRV, Yngwie etc.etc.
Guthrie then did his own (very convincing) version of all the winners styles. Apparently the other tutors on GT were asked for their votes in this poll and two of them put Guthrie above Satriani, Gilbert etc. One of them said "Having gigged with Guthrie and seen him play loads of times, I'd say he was the scariest guitarist there is !"
I would much rather hear him play rock, but apparently he got pissed off playing music he doesn't like.