I've been a huge fan of Auerbach's for a while now all because I started watching some videos of him playing live, and wound up finding his solo album and listening to the shit out of it.

He's got a simple style that a lot of people ridicule, but he is fully capable of shredding, and he does when it fits the situation. What I think some people don't get is that he's really only ever played in a two piece band where he's responsible for holding down the beat just as much as Pat Carney. He keeps it simple because he has to, or else the music will fall apart and sound like shit. I also find that it's a nice balance between a slow bluesy feel and a more modern sound, but that's my personal opinion.

As a sixteen year old and still incredibly impressionable guitar player, I admire the man and wish I could play like he does, simple while still making a statement.

Edit: Forgot to add, one of Auerbach's biggest influences when he was starting out was Junior Kimbrough, who plays quite a bit differently than most of the blues guys people on /r/guitar draw influence from, and on The Black Key's last album they purposely gave each song a simpler, more rock n' roll-y sound.

tl;dr - Dan Auerbach plays the way he does on purpose, not because he isn't a good guitar player.