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I picked those guys as icons of their genre but yea, people like Rihanna, Travis Barker or Demi Lovato would probably be more relevant. Not that his songs with them lit the world on fire, and of course rock isn't the most relevant genre. But my point was he's stayed in the public eye and made himself into an identifiable brand, as much as a classic rock guitar player could.

Maybe he is the primary song writer by virtue of having been in the band longer than others? Like a volume thing. I'm sure someone on here knows the exact figures.

You're not wrong. But I think it also speaks to how far rock has slid from relevance as a genre. And it's an age thing. Anyone over 40 was old enough to be aware of GNR when at their peak. Under that, they might recognize him as the tophat guy but not know his name, if that. Guitar Hero is already narrowed to an audience of mostly rock fans. Eazy E and Lemmy are both well past their heydays, that doesn't do much for notoriety in 2024. 

Are Team Brazil/The Lebeis Family technically weird Guns N'Roses Fans? 🤔💡 I mean Beta even straight up said,"Where Axl is, I am there," which was creepy and disturbing. 😵‍💫

Of course not everyone will know who he is, but he's more than 'broken into the mainstream from time to time'. Being at the oscars doesn't mean much, but he's played the superbowl, was the face of a massively successful video game (Guitar Hero), played with everyone from Eazy E to Michael Jackson to Lemmy. He's literally the 'classic rock guitar player' halloween costume lol, his look is even more iconic than the music he's played. I could go on, but if there's any guitar player that's managed to keep their pop culture relevance as high as other (older) pop stars, it's Slash.