I don’t care what most people can detect when hearing a guitar playing. I only care what I hear and feel when I’m playing one. As far as trying to make audio judgments from videos, I gave up on that a long time ago and only trust my ears in live situations.
Nailed it. I spent a lot of time meditating on this for the last couple of decades and, honestly, all that stuff matters to the player. There are so many things we, as players, do to our sound that, truth be told, is completely lost in the mix. But that is not the point.
We don’t play music because it’s a job. We play because we enjoy it. That means we like playing an instrument that feels good, looks good in a way we personally appreciate (some like high gloss candy apple red, some like exotic woods and some like “stressed”)
This also speaks to why we can tell the difference between a Mesa blues tone and a boss effects “blues tone”. But the audience usually can’t. And in a life setting, fuggetaboutit.
But The player can, and it affects their playing and enjoyment of playing.