Ian, I think I have been around a lot of trained pianists..We are talking classical trained ?

I have found that most classical trained pianist are not strong left hand bass players..They excel in site reading, so if the bass line was written out..they do fine..

The other fault of classical trained pianist..they do not understand chord structure and theory..

Place a Fake book version chart in front of them and let them interpret the bass line .."live"..the vast majority can not do it..

Classical training relies on technique and site reading..

Sorry I have to disagree with you on this point..as usual