A matter of perspective for sure, but from MY perspective, how you perceive your success in life depends a lot on where you've set the bar. Some people have dedicated themselves to their art and been criticized for it because they weren't working as regularly as their less-talented (but more business-oriented) brothers whose "good enough is good enough" approach to music were busily 'paying the rent and feeding the kids'. Truth is, there is no reason these things have to be mutually exclusive. No member of the Philadelphia Orchestra makes as much as Taylor Swift but they're able to feed their families. So, if you see a talented but unemployed classical or jazz player sitting in your audience, don't sneer at them; applaud them for their uncompromising dedication to their art.

Below is a list of artists and musicians who gave the world gifts that will endure for generations to come. They all have one thing in common; they all died penniless. Clearly they put their art ahead of living an obscure life eking out a mediocre living. But hey, to each his own (why do some people say 'each to his own'?).

Emily Dickinson. ...
Claude Monet. ...
Johann Sebastian Bach. ...
Franz Kafka. ...
Henry David Thoreau. ...
Johannes Vermeer. ...
Edgar Allan Poe.
Vincent van Gogh. ...
Mathew Brady. ...
Franz Schubert. ...
William Blake. ...
Oscar Wilde. ...
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Charlie Parker...
...and countless others..

Although I've been accused of it, I DON'T HATE ARRANGERS. I have owned about 8 and currently own 4. I just have never used one on a gig, but that's because it doesn't lend itself to the kind of music that I like to play (on stage). I've only played organ and Rhodes for all these years. I've played some amateur gigs on piano but knew I wasn't good enough to play piano on a professional stage. I do agree with Diki (and Paul) that if you're a player, the (type of) keyboard doesn't really matter that much. If you're not, then I think some form of backing tracks is a more honest presentation. I'm sure that most high-end performers, absent a live band, use backing tracks as opposed to say, live arranger-keyboard backing. But again, that's just MY perspective. Bob, my sometimes guitar player (he's fabulous), will sometimes play a chord that just makes the hair on my arm stand up and I'll say whoa....what was that...show me that chord...; usually it's something that can't even be played on an arranger except manually. Those are the times when I know I never want to play any other way, and that transforms music from a pastime into an art. So yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of 'starving artists' out there but I'm not sure they see themselves that way. Oh well, I guess once we're dead and gone it won't matter much....oh wait, yes it will.

chas