The interesting truth is that inept preparation of food requires a lot more spice to get the same effect. Speaking as someone who was long inept.

This can be true. At the same time, the Western culinary experience is shaped around the way people cooked in Europe at a certain time period. Lots of fuel was available for cooking and people stayed in one place a lot, so you got a cuisine where a lot of flavor comes from heavy browning and long cooking. Other cuisines came together in different circumstances, and so you have an emphasis on quicker cooking times, and more of the flavor comes from intensely flavored ingredients (like peppers and herbs).