Well that's what I said. Being a really good instrumentalist has little to do with popular success. I deliberately chose the word "instrumentalist", not "artist

Well that's what I said. Being a really good instrumentalist has little to do with popular success. I deliberately chose the word "instrumentalist", not "artist". I don't understand why you start with "Yes, but [...]" when you aren't contradicting anything I wrote. Incidentally, "cultural sensitivity, melody, restraint" are things that are harder to deliberately practice than raw instrumental skill.