My God David! I bet Nic Jones loved Liege and Lief!
One thing I would say is that I've always thought that Richard's guitar playing could have fitted in better.
It's probably more to do with the sound he got back then rather than the actual notes.
For example, if the mature Mark Knopfler (who - it has to be said - was massively influenced by Richard) could have played on those tracks I think he would have done a better job.
Indeed, I suppose they could - with technical wizardry, even now, replace Richard with Mark on those tracks. Now there's a thought!