[Biff]

re: Hack&Lube

The way we define things might explain some of the differences in our perspective.

Average player? Could that mean a bunch of different things?

Can a casual player play on almost anything? Yes!
Are there wonderful musical things that can be explored on almost any instrument? Sure!
Can you get a richness of variety and features using midi / technology enabled digital instruments? No question!

The implication, though, that better instruments don't offer a meaningful difference in performance and capacity for developmental piano, that ongoing skill-improvement side of the equation, isn't accurate. Yes, you can have a perfectly acceptable experience as a casual player on a casual-level instrument. It is harder to develop higher-order playing skills on lesser instruments.

In an analogous sense, you absolutely can drive around a Grand Prix circuit in your domestic automobile. You can enjoy the experience. You can even say "I don't believe that all the cost and specialization of racing vehicles is justified or necessary". A racing enthusiast would have a different perspective.

I think the same could be said for almost any leisure pursuit. Can you do it at a casual level with run-of-the-mill equipment? Probably. Can you do it better and achieve a more satisfying experience, if you wish to, on better equipment? Likely.

I'm not trying to be elitist, exclusionary, or unnecessarily pedantic about why good pianos are better. I am, though, going to reinforce what a couple-hundred years of developmental piano pursuit has learned. At some point, and ideally as early as possible, a better instrument will allow for development and progress as a pianist to an increasingly greater degree than a lesser one.

I have the under $2000 instruments in the store. I sell digitals (lots of them, actually). I don't deny the usefulness of all kinds of different instruments for different purposes. There absolutely is, though, fundamentally better performance in higher cost digitals, and acoustics, compared to value ones. Is that difference necessary and meaningful for everyone and every player? No. Is it something worth knowing and considering if you're looking to be, or raise a kid who is, an ever-better piano player? Yes.