You watch that, and most of it he is soloing over the same four chord progression.

A chord sequencer would have allowed him to play it once, and then solo over it without dashing back to the keyboard all the time, until it was time to change the chords. And foot-pedals would take away the need to leave the bender for fills and variation changes..

But that was some pretty darn good rock soloing, and would have sounded like doo if played without the bender! All playing the arranger stuff did was interrupt the flow.