I've seen 8 shows with Richie and 3 without him. The last 3 definintely lacked something. In Munich 2013 there were all sorts of licks and fills that Phil didn't play, I especially remember Raise Your Hands being quite dull and the solo to Saturday Night only being a repetition of the basic chords. And he just isn't the guy to play bluesy songs with the same feel. Memory and Roses were rather bland because of that.
There is no doubt that he had improved a lot until I went to Stuttgart a month later, but it was the personality Richie used to have (not saying that he still has it) that missed. The guitar playing was rather fine, but it lacked a certain magic and the acoustic rendition of Superman (which had been amazing in 2011) suffered a lot from the abscence of his backing vocals.
Cologne was great because Jon shook the setlist around like a maniac and threw all sorts of rarities in. I was thrilled, but with Richie's input (especially on This Ain't A Love Song) it probably would've been the night of my life!