I’m surprised, I think I was predisposed to agree with the conclusion but this post has the opposite effect. This post seems to implicitly take as a given that
1. Pianos sounding the way the piano tuner and pianist wanted them to sound is a Good Thing, and
2. It is not replicable by machines
\#2 is a very unusual take for this site, perhaps I misunderstood?
\#1 Why should Piano Tuner’s preferences for how a piano sounds affect my preferences? Maybe I like the variety of hearing an out-of-tune piano:
You can be a [connoisseur of anything](https://xkcd.com/915/). I think I do value connoisseurs existing, but I’m not sure I value specifically piano connoisseurs in their current form existing.
And then we’ll all have slightly worse pianos than we would otherwise have.
I fundamentally disagree. Worse according to Piano Tuner, sure. But will the experiences we have of enjoying music get worse if piano tuners slowly died out as a profession? I doubt it.
I suspect the reason you found little difference in match quality is because “being interested and able to attend a LessWrong event” is already a huge filter. Maybe you already knew that.