I find there are niches for everyone and everyone is good at something, very few are good at it all.
Exactly. And the ones who are good at more than one area often times specialized in one particular area before moving on to another area. Nothing wrong with focusing on different aspects of Taekwondo during different parts of the journey.
Early on, I, like most people of my era, wanted self defense knowledge. We trained in martial arts, not because our parents signed us up for discipline, but because we wanted to learn how to fight. So to that end, I studied several styles at the same time, in an effort to create my own MMA. And I got criticized for it.
Later, after reaching a state where I felt like I could defend myself against 99% of what was out there who would attack me, I found that I had the hardest time against taekwondo competitors, due to their footwork. So I made a conscious decision to focus my taekwondo studies solely on competition sparring and stopped forms completely. And I was criticized for that because I was "sport" only and was ignoring all of the traditions of Taekwondo.
Then the Kukkiwon opened up the Instructor Course to non-Korean, which to me signaled a new and coming emphasis on poomsae, so I started focusing in on poomsae only, and I was criticized for that as well, advocating the short narrow stance and other things.
Now, I am focusing or trying to focus on the higher level thinking, understanding the pioneers and more importantly the why of what they did, and now when I attempt to explain their point of view, I get criticized again.
The consistent pattern? Me focusing on an area, and getting criticized for it, by those who cannot or choose not to understand what I am trying to do. So, having been criticized and judged for almost my entire martial arts career, I can honestly say that I really don't care about what others think. And if I did care, then I wouldn't have done all the crazy things that I did to get to where I am, and instead I would be doing the same things everyone else is doing, and thinking the same thoughts that everyone else is thinking.