J5, Well I had an irate defense of Arranger Keyboards all typed out, but decided not to go there. There is a place for Workstations, and a place for Arrangers. Great music can be achieved by both. At first I thought I would say that this is the forum for Arrangers and it isn't cool to put us Arranger Users down in our own house just because we might use them differently than you do. But I realized you didn't mean any harm, so I don't have to mention it.
We are always open to different viewpoints and new ideas, but I certainly hope that not using the Pianist Mode doesn't keep me from being a professional. I don't think I would like getting a "real" job after 30 years of making music full time.
I feel I can be much more creative when entertaining in a live situation by playing along with my Arranger Keyboard "band" than with a pre-recorded sequence, which, and I may be mistaken here, would be necessary when using a Workstation. This allows me to extend the song, add a chorus to keep people dancing, create medleys on the fly, hold a chord while I joke with the audience--whatever. I very seldom use the Pianist Mode, even though I'm quite capable of stringing chords together with both hands, because, first of all, I'm not a pianist, I'm a keyboard player. I use the chord hold function to free up my left hand to use the pitch-bend and modulation wheels to add realism to the voices I'm playing. I often play several notes at once with my right hand, as a guitar player or organist might do. In the Pianist Mode, this too easily calls up the wrong chord. Not using the Pianist Mode doesn't make me less professional. Only making less money would do that. Before I learned to entertain, I also taught guitar, trumpet and I could play all the classics on trumpet. Now THAT was lucrative!!
Anyway, I'm sure glad I decided not to speak out on this, because I need to be getting some rest before tomorrows gigs.
DonM