1. YES. Better put, the winders dont have enough/extensive exposure. (AND PROBABLY WILL NEVER WILL)
2. I wouldnt be so quick to say that. Its like saying completely na walang talent ang Asian ears. (I WOULD BE QUICK ENOUGH. ITS JUST THAT THE WESTERN GUYS ARE MORE TALENTED AT IT. ITS LIKE ASKING SOMEBODY IN AFRICA TO COOK PINOY ADOBO. THE AVERAGE AFRICAN WON'T GET IT BUT SOME EXCEPTIONAL AFRICANS MAY COOK GOOD PINOY ADOBO BUT THEY ARE NO MATCH FOR EXCEPTIONAL FILIPINOS WHO CAN COOK GREAT ADOBO. THE WESTERN GUYS GREW UP ON WESTERN MUSIC, GREW UP WITH THE GOLDEN ERA GUITARS AND TUBE AMPS, GREW UP ON TUBES, GREW ON VINYL, CREATED THE SOUND OF ROCK AND BLUES, ATTENDED ACTUAL CONCERTS WERE MARSHALLS WERE RUNNING AT 10, ETC. VERSUS ASIANS WHO FIRST HEARD ROCK MUSIC ON THE TINY SPEAKER OF THEIR RADIO, WHO FIRST STARTED OUT WITH TINY SOUNDING DISTORTION AND OVERDRIVE, WHO DON'T HAVE ENOUGH LIVING SPACE TO CRANK THEIR GUITAR TUBE AMPS, WHO GREW UP ON TINY TREBLE SOUNDING INSTRUMENTS, ETC. )
although 1 and 2 are closely related. talent is honed with experience and exposure. also if you could afford to put money into research and have plenty of access to these vintage pickups and study them, to know what makes them good or not, then of course, you are more likely to come up with better, if not the best sounding pickups around.
However, considering they dont have the same access like their american counterparts, starting from scratch and creating them from their own RnD efforts (e.g. Fernandes who created the VH1s and the L5000, who are revered by many are the best in its class), you cant say they dont have the ears for great sounding pickups.
I believe that the Fernandez VH1s and the L5000s are no match against the work of Rolph, Wolfetone, Lollar, Bareknuckles, CRCoils, Amiltifano, etc... Over the years, NO japanese pickups has inspired me like the great U.S. pickup winders and I don't hear AT ALL about them in the boutique community and the guitar experts in the U.S.
But we are begging the question. Are we hoping for some kind of Asian Pickup Winding Messiah when the best winders in the U.S. are already doing great sounding pickups? For what reason? Para maka mura? Are you willing to pay an Asian Pickup Winder the same price of Rolph or Throbaks? If not, whats the point of waiting for this yet unknown Asian winder?
If you read between the lines of my first post, JTRibiloff not only has experience but owns over 400 guitars and was allowed access by George Gruhn to the so called vintage guitars that sounded good and bad. Jim Rolph's pickups which I use and I am quite close to Jim owns over 200 VINTAGE GUITARS (including bursts and 50s and 60s Fenders) not to mention old marshall amps, fender tweeds, vintage hi watts, a Trainwreck, etc... He does not own any guitar beyond the 60s. When I asked him what makes him different from other vintage winders, his answer was simple ... I hear those old pickups sound on actual vintage guitars. As I mentioned, he started winding pickups in 1959. He had pickup magnets of the good sounding pickups profiled in chemical composition way back in the 60s. When the portable VHS first came out, he filmed old pickups as he slowly unwound them from the bobbin to understand their winding pattern. Jim had toured with his wife playing in bands in the 50s and 60s. His current customers as I recall include: Joe Walsh, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, Richie Sambora, Mick Mars, Robben Ford etc... What you have with Jim Rolph is more than just measurements but a collective knowledge of sounds from artists and how great sounding pickups sounded in actual vintage guitars that escapes the plastic boxes found in DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, EMG, etc.
Now don't get me wrong. If you have an average sounding guitar, its not worth spending. You would economically do well with DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan or EMG. If you own an SX or an Indonesian or China guitar, 'fill in the name' budget guitar, stick to tesla and even the Japanese pickups. That's fine but you do get what you pay for and unfortunately, for guitar gear I noticed that the real good sounding high end and boutique stuff -- assuming the whole chain is really top notch in terms of character and sound -- is more than the sum of its parts and NOT just an incremental improvement with decreasing marginal utility. As you go up the chain, each piece that really performs brings in an EXPONENTIAL improvement thats hard to explain.