I think it's not. If musicians and only musicians wanted themselves behind instruments, for the sake of being, there should be a market for autogenerated self-playing music machines for their former patrons who wouldn't care. And that's not the case; the market for ambient sound machines is small. It takes equal or more insanity to have one at home than, say, having a military armored car in the garage.

On the other hand you've probably heard of an iPod, which I think I could describe as a device dedicated to give false sense of an ever-present musician, so to speak.

So, "they" in "they still want a person behind the piano" is not just limited to hobbyists and enthusiasts. People wants people behind an instrument, for some reason. People pays for others' suffering, not for a thing's peculiarity.