Chas, unfortunately, a lot of what you posted has already taken place, especially when it comes to younger people. There's no instant gratification with any instrument, thus my friend's music teaching rooms (15 of them) at his store no longer have a waiting list. In some ways, I guess keyboards, like many things that require some degree of effort to learn, will eventually give way to things that take little or no effort to provide the same end means. And, yes, if the vocals are good to excellent, the audiences really don't care where the music comes from. Hell, everyone has been hoodwinked to believing that we, as OMB entertainers, are just doing karaoke and not really playing the arranger at all. This has always amazed me.

Cheers,

Gary