Right you are, Ian. Good summary.
But just for the sake of debate, that crabby old purist George Gruhn (and he can be really cranky at times, at least in what he has written over the years in Vintage Guitar Magazine) seems to think that Mike Bloomfield was as influential, if not more so, than Eric Clapton was on the Beano LP. They were both playing Les Paul Standards at about the same time.
Could be parochialism on Gruhn's part, I think, in him rooting for an American over a Brit. IMO, Clapton just killed everyone playing guitar (except maybe Hendrix) with his live stuff on Wheels of Fire. I remember hearing it the first time in the fall of '68 at the Audio Visual Club at Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, N.J. (yes, once a geek always a geek) and having Crossroads stuck in my head for two days straight.
But I remember reading that John Sebastian (who also played a Standard in the Lovin' Spoonful back then, and sold it just a few years ago) visited the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo in the mid-60s and told the workers they should start making the Standard again, and they practically laughed him out of there!
Any way, here's a really good Vintage Guitar overview of the Les Paul Standard that has Gruhn's comments, as well as other Les Paul gurus.
http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=50
Maybe it speaks well for the Love Rock in that it did not take any one player to popularize it - rather just its awesome quality that has quietly impressed guitarists over the years.