For those into Shawn Lane - Holdsworth wide intervals..

Catthan

those stretchy wide intervals on a single string.. why not tap the fockers?
I get it I can play them however I want (well,, can't really yet) and neither Shawn or Alan will turn in their graves but, is there a benefit or a purpose? 
Surely tapped will sound different but if fretted, picking and legato fluency come into play..

Brad

Catthan said:

those stretchy wide intervals on a single string.. why not tap the fockers?
I get it I can play them however I want (well,, can't really yet) and neither Shawn or Alan will turn in their graves but, is there a benefit or a purpose? 
Surely tapped will sound different but if fretted, picking and legato fluency come into play..

Because they didn't need to

Regarding purpose, I recall reading an interview with Holdsworth years ago but I can't remember if below was the exact answer I read, however it ties in with what I'd understood regarding his views.

Q -  Do you use two hands to fret very often? On "Shallow Seas," for instance, you use a right-hand finger to hit a bass note.

AH - I use it very rarely: mostly for chords. I can do it much more than I do it, but I just don't like to do it because it's almost become such a fashionable thing. And there are still a lot of things I can't do using what I've got already. I still want to work a lot on that before I decide I've had enough of my left hand.