I think this is the crux of the anecdote; when starting out - these examples are precisely tuned so that the tool is transparent;
the user doesn't need to accomodate the tool to get good results.
I had the same experience with beginners and their saxophone choices.
Some of these kids could play circles around me with my horn,
but theirs were so badly made, or poorly set up that they struggled.
To paraphrase FactCheck.org "The plural of anecdote is not data."