All of those guys have supplemental (or substantial) income that doesn't actually come from using the hand tools. Fidgen is one that I think of when I think of a slow work pace (and a bunch of modern tools). Peter Follansbee doesn't work slowly, but he's made a bunch of videos and is on staff at a museum. Could he survive off of just his work? I don't know. How many people really do?
The point is more whether working quickly by hand dictates that you'll have a preference for a different type of tool, along with a bit of curiosity of how many people are actually able to find paying clients for works done by hand (which doesn't mean making the same thing someone else makes with power tools).
To me, a LV BU is easier to use for a beginner than a stanley plane, and with a higher strike rate. There's not much to it - if you have tearout, increase the angle and it'll probably go away. If you don't want to use an increased angle all the time, keep two irons.
Does that mean that advice coming from people who dimension by hand is bad advice for people who don't? maybe it is? The average tuner (of favorable woods) might prefer a spring pole lathe and carbon steel tools, but they won't get there in all likelihood because the learning curve is very steep (sharper tools, more economy of a cut, demand for better stock, etc).
Sometimes when I direct people to use a cap iron, I think they'd probably be better off just buying a BU plane (LN or LV) and putting off all of the things that turn me on about the double iron because most of those things are pre-smoothing, and I doubt most people do most of those things in quantity. I certainly don't have the speed that it would take for someone to pay for anything I'd do (nor the design). I couldn't dimension as fast with BU planes but if I wasn't dimensioning, I probably wouldn't care.
I suppose this question is now growing branches. As an aside, I wonder if people who I've suggested something to afterwards go out and do something like buy a BU plane and then set it up and say "you know, Dave's advice was really stupid. It is a lot easier to do X instead". Would they consider advice from a professional the same if it meant a delay before they observed consistent success?