I agree that muscle memory is an essential part of your playing but the emphasis, here, is on the 'part'.
When you are playing complex lines, you need to be able to think about what you are playing and execute the lines you intend to play. If you are playing massive chunks based on muscle memory, you will fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. A lot of soloists can fall into the trap of relying on their own mm cliches and just start flapping around to create the illusion that there is something going on (I am a world champion in this - ). I guess the secret is to have muscle memory that is very detailed. Its like you memory for words; you do not need to say 'plasticine' very often to remember it but it doesn't jump out in the middle of sentences unless you plasticine, sorry, intend it to. If your muscle memory is linked to you mental processes, it can serve you very well indeed. If not, it can lead you up a blind alley very quickly. So its is important to have muscle memory that is full to the brim with options.
For me, one of the most difficult aspects of being an improvising musician is getting your mind sharp enough to be able to think and execute ideas in real time. It is far easier to get your fingers to do the work for you but this is untimately self defeating as it quickly turns you into a boring player.