The technique will always follow what the player hears in his/her head if they are driven to do so. I thing YM was listening to virtuoso classical violin and Uli Roth/ Ritchie Blackmore stuff and that sound became pressed into his head. When he started doing his licks, they came out with that flowing sound. He developed his technique to make that flowing sound. He probably didn't study under a guitar virtuoso and figured out methodically how to do his sound. This is how most of us find our sound. Listen to what's in your head and try and reproduce it on the guitar. That is a task, isn't it! That's why we love the virtuosos. They did the work to bring their highly technical sound out.