Of course effort is no guarantee of success. I did say, originally, that people and fortuitous circumstances surrounding a person will impact their chances there.

But I never said Clapton had to be successful to be worth feeling grateful to or for; that was your idea. I have listened to lovely music by people you'll never hear of; I feel grateful that I have been able to do that, entirely apart from the fact that they have no more commercial success than session musicians and many have to have day jobs. Still as artists they are as successful in my eyes as Eric Clapton because my response to them is at least (and often far more so) favorable than my reaction to him.