"Interesting how the US works, over in the UK & Europe they don’t hire arranger players they just hire musicians to entertain, however if a keyboard player started using full styles they would be unlikely to get another gig, as the owners would just turn round and say what’s the point as I can just stick a tape on and get the same at a much lower price. "

That's exactly how it is in the US. Arranger keyboards are not perceived as legit/serious instruments. Even most musicians wouldn't know what an arranger keyboard is. I'm a full time musician and 99.9% of my friends have something to do with music and yet, I'm probably the only one who actually owns an arranger keyboard.

None of the professional Pro Audio stores carry arranger keyboards. You almost NEVER see an arranger related pro audio event whereas there are tons of synth/workstation stores/events/groups and so on.

I'd say this is a good thing actually.