OK I don't want to start a fight here so let's slow down a little... I don't have a "we-just-don't-understand" attitude. I know most of you experienced the bar environment, at least a little, but you sometimes act like you never did. I'm sorry but it's the truth. Regarding the rest of your post, sure a good player can adapt to all those circumstances... with time. Those who played only in pool halls for years and then entered a bar and ran 10 racks are unbelievably rare. I'm saying this cause I personally saw how bar conditions influence those good players and how it can easily give advantage to the bar players if they're smart enough.
P&P:
With this, I *have* to ask: when was the last time you were in a genuine pool hall, with genuine 9-foot tables, with genuine players that cut their teeth in a genuine pool hall? Because your posting(s) beg this question -- I have a feeling you don't have much experience in a genuine pool hall, or if you did, you didn't like the fact that your "skills" on a bar table didn't scale to a 9-footer.
Personally, I play in both. Even though I cut my teeth in pool halls on big tables, I appreciate the congested aspect of a small table playing 8-ball, and the ability to precisely control the cue ball. Here in the USA, we play "call everything" rules in this type of environment -- one has to call every little contact that the cue ball *and* the object ball make before the object ball enters the pocket. You won't find the type of bar table play you describe, where you can randomly smash into clusters of balls and if a ball pockets, you keep control of the table -- unless they are absolute beginners.
And, when I play in a bar, inevitably (and rarely it's NOT the case), I'm the best player there. I usually own the table for the night, taking on all-comers, until complaints are lodged to the barkeep for me to relinquish the table.
What you describe, where a big-table-experienced player gets his/her "head handed to him/her" RARELY occurs, unless the winner is a road player experienced in bar table play. The generally-accepted rules for bar table play here in the U.S. preclude "smash 'em and hope" play causing a really good player (that knows what he/she is doing and can control the cue ball) to lose the game.
The only time you see this in the U.S., is in the APA league, where as long as the player hits his/her category of balls first (i.e. stripes or solids), and a ball of that category pockets, that the player maintains control of the table -- with the only exception being the 8-ball itself, in which the desired pocket needs to be marked. Even then, to offset this "slop counts" mindset, ball-in-hand is implemented to balance the scales.
I honestly don't see how you can say, in the same breath, "players with very pointed bar-table skillsets" (presumably that can "hand a poolhall-experienced player his/her head on the bar table"), but yet at the same time say, "amateur and not of the same caliber as the type of player often discussed / encountered here on the AZBilliards forums." You're talking out of two different sides of your mouth.
Sorry, but I'm "not getting it." You need to clarify.
-Sean