I think Malmsteen will surely be remembered for a very very long time. He is a pioneer, an inovator!

I reckon, if you wanna play like him, go for it. Do what you love! Don't listen to others just cos they dont like Yngwie.

I'm a big fan of him. I got to a stage where I sounded just like him. Not now though. But that was just a great experience! Learning his licks will surely help you. It wont make you play any worse.

Something to keep in mind is, apart from Yngwie's classical composed riffs, most, well all of his solo shred stuff is always improvised. He never plays it the same everytime.

Learn some harmonic minor scales and some minor arpeggios in different positions, and some diminished runs too. He practically just uses Harmonic, melodic minor, Minor/major/dim arps. He mainly does alternative picking but many times uses Economy picking too, and a lot of sweeps.

I have some licks/scales he uses if you want them... message me ;)