Ax an old goat, lots of work, no free time almost, I can only dream about time to practice...
That's why high-school and college students excel at this. People in later stages of life, with jobs, etc. that reach comparable levels have also had gaming experience from their college days...
IMO, you are right in many counts: to be good you need to train. To train, you need the time.
Above all, you need the competitive spirit required to spend hours just to take off those miser 20 seconds... and then challenging inumerous players just to verify and perfect it...
All for the sake of winning.
And here comes the inevitable question: why do we want to win at this "it's only a game" thingy, and not at more important things in our lifes?...
Hour for hour, minute for minute, I believe the "relative" importance of a game is not consistent with the time we devote to it. Other things in our lifes, maybe much more important, get behind, simply because the focus of attention is not there... not to mention the time taken away from them...
Enough for a psichology treaty, I tell you...
Kleitus, Thump, Methos, Omnivac... Get ready to be interviewed by a team of Sociologists doing research ...
I better quit talking about this addiction now... getting depressed.
I COULD quit smoking over 3 packs a day, abruptly.
I ... can... quit... playing ....hmmm... Age of Empires... argh!... any.... daaaay....Can I?...