I think many of us here (myself included) are suffering from selective interpretation.
Yes.
Seems to me less than 10 people on all of Talkbass are in agreement with him and actually understand what he's talking about.
As a very staunch supporter of the Metronome, here are my memories from my personal experience of that "orthodox" (academic) music school.
Yes, there were old-fashioned metronomes on almost all pianos/fortepianos or on some shelves.
Their purpose was (sometimes) to indicate/approximate a composition's tempo like,
Allegro moderato — moderately quick (112–124 bpm).
I have never ever played any composition on the accordion or on the piano with the Metronome.
The metronome was only to approximate - to round up - tempo.
For solfeggio lessons, my right hand was my Metronome.
A METRONOME HAS HELPED MY TIMING, IMMENSELY.
Once again.
During my music school years with those academic tormentors, I've never ever was asked, forced to play anything with the metronome.
I know what you mean by saying, "A metronome has Helped me tremendously", and here is why.
The classical academic musical education did not require any precise timing!
See Allegro moderato from 112BPM to 124BPM. It's such a big difference!
Here is what, I think, would have been done decades ago about those Metronomes.
Most probably, it would have been some kind of "after-school activity", or some "group of strange musical ideas" with a very strange name, "What is Groove and how to achieve it".
That would have been decades ago.
Now, most probably the Metronomes are required in some "fine musical institutions".
But what about that, "A metronome helped me tremendously?" statement.
When I was playing Schubert or Berlioz, or Haydn, or even Johann Strauss, my teachers required so much of OTHER things/nuances/attributes from my playing that drove me "nuts", but there was NOTHING said, required to play with the Metronome!
But even if you play some easy country music "Root-5th" pattern, you "must" lock with the drummer.
What???
It's never ever been mentioned in any academic education teaching tutorial.
Or maybe you were talking about some "after class" activity where some "strange" solfeggio teacher was "promoting some strange Groove ideas.
Let's take a "strange" example.
A college student is learning how to build a bridge with all those crazy formulas, calculations, etc...
That academic course manual, several required to read books, plus professor's notes have nothing to say about
"what kind of gloves/shoes/coats should the student wear while building a bridge in Alaska winter time".
That academic course does not require the student to know what kind of bullet protection to use while building a bridge in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
BUT IT SO IMPORTANT TO THE STUDENT!!!
In short.
With academic learning, the student does not dictate what the student wants to learn. It's given to the student.
In serious academic school, the student does not notate a chord as C- and does not use the Nashville chord notation system (but it's SO IMPORTANT for me).
When you told us that beautiful story about a very expensive bass guitar teacher in New York, to me it sounded like this:
"I don't care about any Cooking knowledge. I just wanted to know how much that Cooking Teacher is making or could make per hour", or "I promised my spouse to make Halva."
Should you have questions, please let me know.
) (Also sorry if I pester the admins every time I do this! Didn't realize this until I read the earlier post by one of you guys. Will start to proofread a bit more and add try convey all my thoughts at the time of posting. 
(I figured this may be better than spamming the board with new messages all the time! 
))
