Just a few facts:

PAUL Kossoff played the solo on All Right Now on an old Les Paul Custom. He did play it on a Strat for a while in public (sponsorship deal), but you can't see the guitar used in the studio on a record. OTOH if you are using someone's brand as an advertisement, you don't tell people that you used a competing brand.

Re: Mark Knopfler; Mr Knopfler is historically a Strat lover, and plays one most of the time - but he always switches to his Les Paul to play Money for Nothing.

In generalities, Fender electrics generally sound sweeter and cleaner than the fat Gibson humbucking sound. The Firebirds, especially those with P90 (soap bar) pickups were put out in competition to Fenders - they didn't take off in that sense, but they really are a very versatile and underrated design - listen to Johnny Winter, for example. In a similar vein, Fender have put out guitars with humbucking pickups that deserved better recognition - the Starcaster and Telecaster Deluxe were great guitars. It is true that a lot of The Sound nowadays can be generated by electronic wizardry, but it is a lot easier to get the sound you are looking for if it is three-quarters there to start with.