I totally relate with everything you said. I grew up playing in bands and you cannot replace pure feeling and talent.
Discussion
May wind up being the only way you can know for sure you're hearing real music performed by real people is to go see someone playing live. Everything coming full circle back to before they came out with the first radio broadcast.
No doubt. Look at what digital music recordings did to the value of albums. I used to love to look at the cover sleeves and read the lyrics and everything. Today's bands don't have a chance of being seen or heard.
Easy to consume, easy to throw away. Fiat music.
I'm not anti-streaming technology... it's convenient AF to pull up any Soundgarden album at my fingertips... but Soundgarden never would have reached the masses today the way they did before music went online. They would have been a needle in a million haystacks.
There needs to be a balance and happy medium. Maybe going decentralized and local will help us redefine music and re-establish its identity in quality similar to how the Beef Initiative is with beef intelligence and consumption.