Well I think it is a definite advantage.... I have only fairly recently joined the ranks of the melody players and that is great and I love it. My background though is that of a guitar player for all of my adult life. I think guitar players have a different approach to sessions.

Playing the guitar enables you contribute something to a song or tune, even if you do not know the melody enough to play it, something that the majority of melody players don't fully understand.... Although the best guitar players (and best musicians) know when not to play at all.

Guitar players do get a lot of stick, mostly undeserved in my opinion, but they and the poor old bodhran players are pretty easy targets, as all the melody players (who would argue amongst themselves otherwise), can all agree that they are the problem. I think it is just that they just have to sit there and can't really contribute, if they don't know the tune and they get a little jealous of those that can.

I have largely switched to the bouzouki now and reluctantly to the tenor banjo, for volume at sessions. As playing the melody on the bouzouki will not be heard, I take both instruments and play chords on the bouzouki on the quiet tunes and the melodies I don't know well enough to play on the banjo. So it's the best of both worlds really.

Something you could try, it does get you to understand and appreciate the tunes (and the melody players) better and will improve your rhythm playing too.