After having read numerous interviews with, and about Segovia, I'm not sure "humble" would be the operative word. Like Carlos Montoya (who popularized..and many say destroyed Flamenco), he didn't look kindly on critics or players who disagreed with his approach. I can see that incident happening.
There are limits of course, but it IS in the hands of the player. Stories abound (some apocryphal of course) of ordinary mortals picking up one of the giants' instruments and being amazed how difficult said instrument was to play. I attempted to play Earl Scruggs' banjo when I was about 17 (backstage, he just said "sure, anyone wanna try it?") and found the neck warped, the action high, and the sound terrible. In his hands, it was magic!
I'm told that Leadbelly kept his action high so that NOBODY would mess with his guitar.
Back to the blindfold experiment. I would have preferred that the Brazilian Martin, made the other guitars look sick. But it didn't. The brand new Yamaha was superior.
Rick