Yeah, I'm betting that my general lack of enthusiasm is a big contributor to my own lack of skill with women. I'd agree that a person who has had several partners of that sex and has listened to each partner & adapted to each partner is most likely to be someone who is good in bed, compared to either someone with few or no previous partners or someone who has many but who doesn't bother to listen to them.

I had one partner who had a very small number of previous partners, but 1) he was extremely enthusiastic about sex, 2) he had a small number, but many years with that small number, 3) he placed his partner's enjoyment as a priority and was willing to learn specific things about each partner. Consequently, if I had to rank all my past partners on skill level, he'd be among the top 5.

The others in the top 5 were the same except they had much larger numbers, except for one partner who was blind who relied on touch and vocal cues just to survive, so he had a bit of an advantage there even with his very small past number. Of course, he also had the enthusiasm and interest in learning specific partners. That seems to be the common denominator here.

Which completely negates the whole "they have the same equipment, therefore they're automatically better at manipulating it" theory.