Like when Simone got hit into the face by some jewelry thrown onto the stage and the song started without vocals before being aborted?
Yes, it does show that the quality of the performance is derived directly from the ability of the artist - but regarding that argument, I cannot help but wonder - why does that affect the product? Is, by that logic, a fire made with nothing but a block of dry wood and a stick superior to one simply lit by a match or *gasp* a lighter? Sure, it shows that the fire starter is more skilled at making fires, but the fire is still a fire, an exothermic reaction of the organic molecules in the wood with the oxygen gas from the air that provides the surroundings with warmth and light. Who would prefer the "hand-made" fire, at least after the novelty wears off?
There is actually something similar in the domain of video games. There is a community that specializes in "speedruns" - playthroughs of a game that aspire to reach the shortest time from turning on the system to the end credits. More accurately, there are two communities - one that does this by hooking up the console to a VCR (or a DVR, or whatever), grab the controller and play the games with their human skill, to compete for the fastest player. The other ones, they reproduce the game on a computer (usually by emulation), and optimize it frame-by-frame: they cut down the game to the shortest possible unit of time using technology, to see if they can shave 1/60 of a second off the total time spent in the game. And, during artificially slowed sections (such as the stomping pillar room in the first castle of Super Mario world), they sometimes entertain the viewers with over-complicated and needlessly risky stunts that would result in certain in-game death if those were attempted by a being with natural reflexes - after all, if they lose, they can just rewind the game for a tenth of a second and correct themselves. Those "tool-assisted" speedruns obviously do not showcase playing skill as much (though much like with music, it is necessary to a certain degree to create the base material and to find the optimum you try to approach), instead relying greatly on production to give an entertaining display of near-perfection.
And the moral of the story is: Do not try to get an aspiring engineer to understand art.