This is a topic I hear all the time since I compete in the Artistic Pool Tournaments with Florian. As stated before, Florian started with trickshots where most of us played regular pool first and then transitioned to trick shots. Florian's pool game has gotten better then in the past. His high run in straight pool is in the 70's, he has run a 5 pack of 9 ball on a 9ft table, and his 3 cushion game is getting pretty decent. But like others also have stated, artistic pool is a different beast that regular pool. My regular pool game has gone down a bit since I started doing artistic pool about 5 years ago. However if I gave our shot program to a top level pool player, they probably wouldn't score better then a mid level artistic pool player. Because they don't practice that stuff because it isn't what they do. Yes Florian can miss 50 times in making a video but he is always in the last 4 of our artistic pool events and we only get 3 attempts there.
As far as the use of silicone, that is mainly for videos. Our artistic pool tournaments do no allow the use of silicone. However, silicone is used for some shots in artistic billiards.
As far as there being "trick cues," most of us use standard cues. Yes all of us have a masse cue, which is shorter and heavier. Also the majority of us also use a jump cue for super short distances, either the marty carey jump cue or the dr popper. I personally have 3 jump cues I use in competition: the marty carey jump cue and two standard factory jump cues.
Florian would put up more of a fight in a pro event then I think people give him credit for, but he doesn't need to. The stigma is that us artistic pool players can't play regular pool. For some that is accurate. However most of us can play decent. But we won't compete against the top level pros in regular pool for the same reason they won't be able to compete against us in artistic pool. Besides, its always nice to go to a venue to do an exhibition and you have your expenses paid for and money on the side before you even walk in the door. Who would give that up?