People tend to trust (and stick with) the opinion of who they think is an "expert" regardless of the actual qualifications. It saves brain cells. After all, if I think that my cousin/father/uncle/friend from school is an expert, having and sharing the same opinion as he does makes me an expert too, right?

Even worse, when the "expert" happens to be ME, there is NO WAY I will change my opinion, especialy if I suspect that your "expert" opinion is what YOU personally think.

Now let's get money (wages) thrown in, and the "expert's opinion" futher cements itself in the minds of people. As said above, who's going to embrace technology that is even remotely threatening his/hers wages? Eric Clapton is not going to have a problem hearing SA guitars, perhaps he will even play along them ... but my run of the mill/weekend job mucisian cousin is going to be horrified of losing potential wages, and make the sign of the cross.

And of course, someone who saw a Casio in the early 80's and noticed the crap sounds and cheesy accompaniments, formed his opinion, and is not going to wake up in 2006 and get to try a Tyros2 or G70. For him accompaniments are cheesy. Period.

I happened to like arrangers since I saw a Panasonic something in early eighties... thought of them as compensation for my (lack of) musical training and ability... still think about them in this way, and I am happy with it. But, I never (almost) seen a review or even advertisement for arrangers when i was buying Keyboard magagine in mid 90's so I could learn about what to buy... I remember Phil Collins and someone else, pictured in an ad in the back cover, carrying a Korg T3 something, and remember thinking "that thing surely is good" but then realised it doesn't have accompaniment, and thought "what am I going to play one finger melody with?" and finally got the Casio, despite some "experts" that said "this is not a professional instrument".

I don't give a damn about what people say, especially if I think they have NO knowledge about what thy are talking about, but I wonder... how many one finger players like me have an expensive, unused T3 in the back of a closet somewhere, because they heard their "expert" uncle/father/whatever and got the "professional keyboard?"