Just scratching the surface of what he could have become.
Eric Clapton said in "A Film About Jimi Hendrix" that he felt Jimi simply "couldn't keep up" with what his life had become. I interpret that to mean...the pace Jimi put on back then to perform, record, etc to make good on the various contracts he signed early on pre-Chas Chandler days wore him down to where he sort of was an "old 27" by the time he died. Of course, the drug and alcohol use didn't exactly help. But "handful of sleeping pills" kinda tells the story I think. Rest was apparently difficult to come by for him at the time.
The 3 Experience albums are about as strong a 3 album stretch as any rock and roll artist in history from an innovation/excellence/originality standpoint. "Are You Experienced?" is simply stunning, one of my 10 favorite all time albums.
And there was no better live guitarist ever imho. Isle of Wight's "Red House", Band of Gypsies' "Machine Gun", the version of "Johnny B Goode" from Berkeley, Woodstock's "Star Spangled Banner" and "Fire"...to me it's like there's those performances, then the rest of live rock and roll history after them.