Bob: Don't be getting all frustrated on me here. Just offering my opinion. I don't come close to Don in experience or capability but I'll give you a rough idea of where I'm coming from. I've played since 1979 and took a clean 4 or 5 year break in the late eighties/early nineties to spend time with my children. I'm on another break now to spend time with my new daughter and will get back into things, next year. In the meantime, the phone rings about once a month and I play just enough to keep the rust off.
Between Don & Yourself, you have pretty well said all there is about tuning. My only input would have to be... I'm glad that you are impressed by those musicians. I'm sure that they deserve your admiration   
but I wouldn't hire them or sit through a tuning session.