What a shame that there'll never be anyone as good as these old timers then?

It's obvious that you don't have a clue what I'm talking about and I don't understand what you are coming from either. However, I'm quite that we both know what we are talking about ourselves.
So, we'll have to agree to differ.
:-)

You can't compare the new kids on the block to legendary performers who have been on the road for years no matter how gifted or talented they may be. The latter have the benefit of experience having honed and mastered their craft over many years.

"nic jones,and carthy were innovators and have yet to be surpassed by younger guitarists, as accompanists, where are the young superior 5 string banjoists?"

They've already done it and there's surely no need to reinvent the wheel? I don't know about 5 string banjo players but there's plenty of great young tenor banjo players but, of course, they still owe the late Barney McKenna loads of respect as he was the pioneer as far as Irish tenor banjo was concerned.

As I've said earlier, I'm not suggesting that the young musicians are any better than the "best" of the previous generation but they are certainly much more talented than the average players and singers were back then. I lived through it all too, by the way. Perhaps our view of the situation is clouded slightly by the fact that we've probably(In many cases) improved ourselves during the intervening years. So, we forget how limited a lot of us were back then