"The reason that this is not a silly conversation is that Pete Seeger's style of banjo playing has not been fully appreciated by the old-time and bluegrass community"

I'm inclined to agree - I personally think that what Pete does on Darling Corey/Goofin Off Suite is at least as technically tricksy as a lot of things Bela Fleck does, to name just one example early on in his career.

I think Pete would have got much more appreciation from the bluegrass crowd if he had prioritized whizkid showy instrumental stuff rather than songs. Personally, I'm glad Pete recorded what he did - ultimately I prefer a good song to a blindingly fast bluegrass instrumental anytime.

Furthermore, I reckon it's a lot harder to play a whole song on your own, complete with a sophisticated harmonic accompaniment and several different breaks, most of them different to each other.

Whereas all the banjoists the bluegrass crowd rate are either wholly or predominantly instrumentalists: Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka and others. I like almost all of them, but I think when it comes to defining "great instrumentalists", the music world is generally prejudiced towards instrumentalists (non-singers). Their loss.

"The point is not to add to Pete's book but to clarify exactly the contribution he has made to the five-string banjo
through analyzing his techniques in a thorough fashion and showing people how to do it"

well now, you're talking my language. When you said

"It's time to update the Pete book"

there was something about that bald statement that (mildly) irritated me. I thought to myself, well, hasn't the guy done enough already?!

I can see now that you meant something along the lines of "...in order to reveal Pete Seeger to be the consummate artist he is"