Those are literal rock stars, people who's fame and proficiency at one very narrow thing has given them the clout to hire and work with people who do all the things they don't know how to do or don't want to know. They're the exceptions which prove the rule.

If you want to be a professional musician who works with other people rather than just doing their own thing, you need to know sheet music, especially within certain sub-domains like orchestral settings.

(To be fair, as someone who is on the periphery of the music business, the above is a simplification. I'm not trying to imply that the "rock stars" get to skate by, often they're working harder than everyone else to be/remain successful. But they are still exceptional in many respects. Your average person trying to make a living as a musician absolutely needs to know sheet music or at least it's simpler cousin, the lead sheet, to be taken seriously.)

I think you have a good point.

I know an fairly good amateur folk musician who can't read music at all. He relies entirely on his ability to learn music by ear. But he can usually play something after listening to it a few times, and he mostly plays solo folk music. So because he's talented and happy in his niche, he can get by without many typical professional skills.

Similarly, I know a CS researcher who hates to use anything but MatLab, and his MatLab code is not exactly an example of good software engineering. But he's published a stack of really great papers. He's brilliant and he works in a niche.

But the average novice would not be well served by imitating either of these people. They can do what they do because they're above average in specific skills, and because they've found a niche where they can thrive.

In that article, none of the artists is quoted as saying what they did was easy. The previous article on the same blog said it's best to learn both playing by ear and to read sheet music, because without reading it's hard to play anything new you haven't heard.

Didn't say it's impossible. I know great developers who don't like the command line.

Dude, it's just a metaphor.