I agree with your points, but I'm not really sure why you quoted me when your comment isn't really relevant to mine.

I never discounted practice, and yes to be "really good" (Whatever your definition of that is) at something takes a lot of practice regardless of how smart you are.

I also specifically said _pure_ repetition because I know that repetition is important for all skills, but for more complex skills you need to synthesize your past experience and extrapolate to future experiences (I.e abstract thinking). This is a lot more involved than pure repetition.