Having seen my daughter progress from a 4 year old beginner on the cello to eventually playing in a state orchestra and now teaching it, I guess my take is that

Having seen my daughter progress from a 4 year old beginner on the cello to eventually playing in a state orchestra and now teaching it, I guess my take is that fundamentally it is a beautiful instrument. It is designed to resonate close to the human voice. But like the voice, there is an infinite amount of variation - on where to press the fingerboard, how to move the bow. Just like learning to speak and sing with articulation takes years of experience. She became extremely proficient, but just giving her a well made cello didn't achieve anything much. It was only with many hours of coaching and practice refining the input based on the output.