From 25-30 I don't think my chops got that much better, but my EARS got waaaaay better. Thus, my playing is light years beyond what I was doing in my early 20s (in my humble opinion). I think I hear more "in tune" nowaday, for better or worse, haha - lots of shit bugs the hell out of me now that I used to think was cool and noisy before. Currently, me ear is better than my chops, sadly. Which means I need to practice more! I'm not quite able to pull off the level of cleanliness and harmonic "in-ness" that I would like to be. When I'm really blazing I still default more to playing based on "shapes" and patterns than by purely listening and playing within the chord changes. Sometimes this is fine, like for most rock music, but I'm trying to get to a place where I'm really listening all the time and staying more true to my melodic and harmonic intention, as opposed to running up and down shapes and patterns that my fingers default to. Its always a work in progress....the "better" I get, the more I'm able to see, which I've yet to learn! I'm more humbled these days than when I was younger, even though I play better now! haha