>Then, there is the obvious con-game fakery of a band being
>very "skilled" yet they play simple things because they know
>they can "get over" playing stuff like punk that they are
>skilled enough to go past that level, but they know they can
>seem "above average" if they play some "below their level"
>music.

That's an awfully negative term. So your idea is that because somebody can play fancy, they SHOULD play fancy? Why?