Hi g-jamman...
There are really great intuitive players, and great players who devise their arrangements carefully. There are those who combine the two in amazing ways. Some only play, and some play and sing.
One of the limitations of early/young DADGAD players is similar to early/young pentatonic lead players. Lack of variety. They get focused/stuck on a few 'trick-licks' that are fun to play, fairly acrobatic and impressive the first time you hear it. Not so innovative from the audience perspective the 10th time in 2 songs we see/hear it.
Players who stand out are those who learn to build a library of runs, licks, techniques which are pleasing to the ear of both player and listener, and escape mere acrobatics.
Tommy Emmanuel's or Phil Keaggy's incredible never ending lightning fast runs would be far less pleasing if they were not so rooted in the chord progressions they are tied to. Both always stay in key, and the runs start and end in the right places at the right time.
Laurence Juber is a great example of an instrumentalist who uses tunings to capture the 'mood' of a transcribed piece. His Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring was learned and experimented with in several tunings before he landed on the one which fit the fingerings best and permitted the lowest bass note possible for portions of the arrangement. He is very calculating in his tunings...
Other great players just 'let-er-fly' and play the tuning as it lies, and seemingly get very lucky...which I think is really more of an intuitive sense they are using than raw luck (or else they get lucky a lot).
The key for all the best ''successful'' players is they push through till their playing is beyond average. They harness their tunings and extract more from them than other players.
This includes vocalist-players like David Wilcox who lives in altered tunings. The last time I saw a Wilcox concert, he went through about a dozen tunings in the concert. I have his alternate tuning and arranging video, and have attended a seminar of his on altered tunings and song arranging.
The man has tied playing in alternate tunings together systematically, and has musical, song arranging and lyric writing skills that won't quit! The funny thing is when you listen to David Wilcox play/sing you don't realize it's altered tunings. His songs sound very conventional musically.
Hope this adds to the discussion...
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