Quote:

I think the perfection movement has sucked the life right out of many performances



I would agree completely if you had said that the perfection movement has sucked the life out of musicianship... because the tools that lead to perfection encourage people to be less concerned about technical skill.

But you used the word PERFORMANCE, and that is a different thing.
A PERFORMANCE is the sum of many things, and the cumulative effect of those things working together is what makes a performance good or bad.

A performance can include any or all of the following:

1) the quality of the music (is it in tune? Is it tight? is it exciting?)
2) choreography
3) light show
4) the vocals (are they in tune? are the lyrics meaningful? is the singer's demeanor engaging?)
5) crowd interaction (is the audience treated like a friend or an annoyance)
6) equipment (is it enough to fill the hall? too much? did it break down in the middle of a song?)

People judge a performance by the cumulative execution of all the parts. I don't think the average patron cares if the singer uses electronics to sound better... most don't even know that such devices exist... but they ALL know what a bad note sounds like, and if they hear one, their opinion about the performance drops a notch.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0