I think that you can put those sort of arguments for the piano/ keyboard but I know a number of people (mostly a few years older than me) who had piano lessons as children and say "if only my parents forced me to keep it up..." the point here IMO is that the child did not want to learn and therefore got nowhere...

Also, my mother did get to grade 8 piano. I am not a good musician,but in terms of being able to keep time and play with others, "hear" harmonies and basic chords, I as a self taught player with no real training (and a fail at "O" level music in school) can do far more than she can.

I am not knocking proper tuition or anything but I do feel that a peson is going to learn the most from music by doing what they enjoy and that enthusiasm will carry them a lot further than tuition and training alone can do - ideally you have both though (I think).

Jon