Some more thoughts regarding the different Islamic sects.
Despite epistemic issues regarding the present state of Imamate (which is in the realm of "Sacred Mystery" for Twelverism, and is rather mundane and dethatched for Ismailism with their 4th Aga Khan) there are other aspects to this which shed more light on it.
Salafis represent radical (in the negative sense, not positive) subjunctivized hijacking and subverting of the previous sect they have crawled out of (Sunnism). Salafis largely reject the four Madhhabs that Sunnis traditionally follow, although they may often identify with one of the four Madhhabs on grounds of methodology.
Salafis reject the concept of Taqlid, which is to live in adherence to an established school, and rather place emphasis in their own personal practice upon the once-abandoned practice of Ijtihad (which is best summed up as the process of debate about what is considered authentic and how it is applied).
The practice of Ijtihad back in the formative period of Sunnism (between the Ahl al-Hadith movement up to the canonization of the Four Madhhabs and 'official' identification as "Sunni" in the 11th century) was reserved only to those scholars with a mastery of Arabic and who had devoted their lives to the study of Islamic law and theology.
Such high-ranking people were called Mujtahids.
Sunnism itself throughout it's history has been gradually dismantled, from a once very vibrant tradition (which I say obviously in a generous manner being not at all fond of Sunnism) towards, through the Ottoman Caliphate being gradually wiped out and replaced with individual modernist governments (incorrectly considered "Islamic").
For Sunnism, it's actually impossible to truly follow the religion these days, not because of the generic western narrative of "iSlAm iZ iNcOmPaTiBlE wItH mOdErNiTy" but rather that there are very few, if any, Mujtahids to clarify Sunni jurisprudence and no country actually follows the Sunni Sharia. So there is no continuity or application going on in the first place.
On the Shia side however things are quite different.
On the Ismaili side, the Nizari Aga Khans all basically gave the occams razor and said "just follow your country's law, you'll be alright, just don't go against Qur'an or Sunnah".
On the Twelver side, however we actually have a living tradition of Mujtahids and especially Marjas. The most famous Twelver Marja is obviously Ayatollah Sistani.
Sistani, for example, dedicated his entire life to learning the sciences of Fiqh and guiding people towards a moderate and reasonable application of the Sunnah in the modern world.
That said I don't agree with Sistani on everything, but his status of authority actually means something unlike these Salafis who go and take absolute authority into their own hands, looking for the least nuanced and least thoughtful approach to their Deen they could possibly choose, leading obviously to the massive demographic of Salafis who are also terrorists.
In terms of Fiqh, Shia Islam is far superior to the state of Sunnism.
For Sunnism to get back on it's feet, it would have to do something like the Council of Nicaea to re-unify itself and to clarify various issues (regarding Fiqh as well as theological issues - such as the Salafi Shirk of the anthropomorphism of God).
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