My opinion on this is that Ronnie was only bad on the latter part of the Licks Tour. He have been totally cool with the Stones before that. I blame the drinking. I think he fell back into the bottle sometime during Licks.
But yes: He was very good in the Faces. But it was also a different type of songs, which require a different type of playing. On the first few records that Ronnie did for the Stones you could hear that his playing was rooted in the Faces. That changed into a more stonesy playing. And there's nothing wrong with that I think.
JumpingKentFlash