No, he doesn't have the 'best' singing voice, particularly if you're only judging from his output in recent years, although 'best' is so subjective, but he has been singing through seven decades and his voice has been worn and damaged for a considerable amount of time.
He could certainly breathe properly, hit and hold all the right notes, phrase his songs perfectly and have the stamina to both sing and play for long periods of time.
You have to look so much deeper OP, so much deeper, appreciate all his skills, not just the tone of his voice and then you have to put his legendary fame into the context of when he first became hugely successful: the contempories, the genres and what society was doing at the time. He has become a legend without the benefit of conventional good looks, sex appeal or even an undisputed wonderful personality.
I haven't seen him in concert since he did a comeback tour of just him with his piano and the percussionist Ray Cooper. It was fantastic, proving that he wasn't just a gimmicky showman in a Donald Duck costume who could hold the attention of a 400,000 strong live audience in Central Park, although the sheer joy of Get Up and Dance still lightens my heart to this day
nysmusic.com/2020/09/13/40-years-ago-elton-john-rocked-central-park-dressed-as-donald-duck/
Contrast that with the simple beauty of Imagine, both of them performed for around the six minutes mark. He's written music, played the music, with his amazingly talented co-writer and his band and performed and sustained that over such a long period. You've only got to look at the illustrious names he's collaborated with over so many years to understand the respect afforded to him by other top musicians
www.allmusic.com/album/duets-mw0000107584
and the fact that over the years he's been so supportive and nurturing to new talent, including starting his own record label. He's said he doesn't want to stop and he continues that tradition and keeps moving forward despite his age.
He's done all of that whilst enduring a long period of personal turmoil, battles with addiction and seismic changes in the music industry. He may well be a difficult, demanding and unpleasant diva at times, I can well believe it, although I think he has a sense of self now and can laugh at himself and his behaviour too. I wouldn't have booked to see him this past 10 years as I feel he lost an awful lot of the qualities he used to have when performing live, but again - context.
This extract from a Washington Post article in October 1989, is mainly about the Sun newspaper, you may be unaware of just how bad things were back then and how the public could turn on their idols.
all of these were mere peccadillos compared with the Elton John affair. "ELTON IN VICE BOYS SCANDAL" quoted the accusations of a young male prostitute code-named "Graham X." He claimed to have provided the rock star and his manager with at least 10 "rent boys," each of whom was paid nearly $200 and all the cocaine he could snort for homosexual favors during a lurid weekend in 1986. The article included the requisite pious closer in which Graham X justified his seamy revelations: "I am ashamed of what I did. I am speaking out to show how widespread this sort of thing is and to warn other gullible young kids to steer clear of people like these." According to John Sweeney's detailed account in the Independent, the Sun had paid nearly $4,000 to Graham X for the story. He was in fact a young procurer and hustler named Stephen Hardy, and the only problem with his tale was that none of it was true. Elton John had admitted years before that he was bisexual, and many friends, reportedly including Mick Jagger, advised him to lie low and forget the article because challenging it would only goad the tabloid to attack harder. John refused. "They can say I'm a fat old sod, they can say I'm an untalented bastard, they can call me a poof, but they mustn't lie about me," he said at the time. John's lawyers filed suit. And as his friends had predicted, the Sun struck again. "ELTON'S KINKY KINKS" and "ELTON'S DRUG CAPERS" followed a few days later, alleging he had demanded that young male prostitutes be drugged up on cocaine and brought to his bed. Next day: "YOU'RE A LIAR, ELTON." Elton John sued again. And again. In fact, before the affair ended, he sued 17 times. By then, according to Sweeney, the Sun had let loose the dogs of war. A half dozen reporters were put to work full-time on the story. The newspaper also hired John Boyce, a convicted pimp and con man who was told to hunt up other rent-boys and secure affidavits at $3,000 per statement. The Sun's editors "turned around and says to me, they says, 'by the way, can you dig up any kind of crap on the guy?' " Boyce told a television interviewer. "And we used to bring people to hotel rooms and they would tell us that they had an affair with Elton John and you know -- I mean it was all pure crap."
I really felt for him during that period and admired his courage in fighting back.
Elton finally found the courage to come out as gay and to start making a stand against the awful prejudices in society. His global Aids foundation has run since 1992 and gone from strength to strength, like his career, it was no flash in the pan and supports those who are suffering most from prejudice as well as illness.
www.eltonjohnaidsfoundation.org/about-us/our-mission/
Despite the personal attacks, the tantrums, the addiction and losses, in Bernie's words he is still standing and still creating.
I hadn't heard the collaboration with Dua Lipa for Cold Heart, it's a mashup of a couple of his old songs. Not particularly my cup of tea but those songs have obviously stood the test of time. Infact look at his back catalogue and just see how many people have covered his music. Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word by Blue with Elton goes back to something like 2002 and I doubt their voices are all that now, but the performance has endured.
So in summary, I could be here all day listening fantastic songs, favourite pieces. I still listen to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a double album from the 70s and there's not one track I don't like. Do some research, there is so much more to him than being a 74 year old artist who may not have earned his status. He's still a pianist, a song writer, a performer, a celebrity, a knight of the realm and charity campaigner. I think that qualifies him for legend status and then some.