I'm sure he's very aware of this...what makes you think he isn't?

I remember an interview he did around the time of the hall of fame and the presenter was blowing smoke up his ass saying that how Richie was one of the few guitarist that were known to the masses. And Richie said "thanks for the compliment, but I don't really think so..."

But his situation is no different from your average guitarist from a successful rock band. Joe Perry, Keith Richards, Brian May, etc who are all guitar players that release solo stuff, never sell any records or play huge venues. There are very few exceptions of guitar players that do well solo. Slash is once exception as he is such an iconic character. The majority of guitar players always fall in the shadow of the singer, that's just the way it is...