The whole business of being a producer is to make a product with a moat. The grid and all the current fluff is to signal “production” as a kind of powerful social proof to sell higher margin product.

Auto tune is just a signal that you are a player in the music business the way a distortion pedal used to signal transgressive taste, even though punk was indistinguishable from The Monkees, just performed by hiring cheap drug addicts who couldn’t read contracts.

Do pop musicians have talent, sure, but being a musician and being a recording artist are rarely the same thing.