Thank you Nikole for summing up things very nicely in only one sentence

BTW is there really someone named, "Catastraphe" Lytz?
Does she have a brother named, Apostraphe?

Don't forget about head phones, and reverb, and digital and analog effects, and in modern times the recording of a song means many times playing for long periods with reverb on higher settings. This will make you weaker in a real world situation only in your own mind, and will certainly kill the ego. No one sounds good after listening to a playback from a nice recording session. It is fun though, and I use 50% of my time playing that way, if not more. I do not think it hurts my tone at all, in fact I have learned to enhance the recording experience by learning what works and what doesn't.

Being a person who has made hundreds if not thousands of recordings, I can say I play better because I have used reverb and played in big echo filled rooms or a digital sound system. I also recognize that you have to play in all situations to sound good in all situations. Small rooms will never sound as good as big rooms, but I struggle with the thought that playing in a big room or using reverb will hurt your playing. It means you will think you are playing worse, but you aren't. You will not get worse because you are using an echo or reverb. It is just that you need to understand what is going on, and that is the problem, people forget that when the reverb is gone, that they are still playing the same instrument. It still sits on the lips, and you play the same way. Like I said, I think I have made the biggest jumps in my playing since I started recording and listening to myself with reverb and echo. I hear the bad notes so much more now. I understand when I am doing something wrong. So, keep the echo, and reverb, and learn from it!