I don't know how relevant this little allegory is to your situation, but I enjoy telling it and I believe it illustrates the fact that sometimes the "experts" don't know what the heck they are talking about.  OK here's my story:

One year my family hosted an exchange student from Germany whose command of the English language and perfect pronunciation often disguised the fact that she was not a native English speaker.  She was also a very talented musician -- vocally and on the piano.  While in our home she had the opportunity to go to a college campus and participate in a vocal music event whereby she would prepare and present a vocal piece for a professor of music who would critique her work.  The piece she used was from Mozart opera and sung in German.  When she had finished presenting her piece, the only negative comment the professional had was that she needed work on her German accent!  (Take that Henry Higgins!)

I think the experts don't always recognise the talent that they are seeing.

I had an experience recently where I knew my voice was not a problem, but my cold reading went less than perfect.

The audtion process (for Bye Bye Birdie) started on a Sunday afternoon.  I went for the part of Mr. Macafee, but after I sang "Kids", the director asked me how old I was, and asked if I knew "Put on a Happy Face". 

I sang it, then we went to the mirror to do some "light dancing".  He noted I moved "naturally" as he put it.  I was told they were considering me for the lead role of Albert Pederson, and invited me for the call-backs the following Wednesday.

I had to sing second, and in front of perhaps 60 people.  Again, the singing went well.  Then came the cold-readings.  That's when I started to lose my confidence.  It just didn't come out right.  I was asked to read the "Albert" part with three different prospective "Rosies". 

Many of the other men read Albert, but were then asked to read a few other roles.  I wasn't invited back up.  I thought "man, I guess that went really badly -- they're not even considering me for another role".

To my surprise and delight, I got a call the next evening inviting me to take the lead role of Albert.  I was stunned.  I told the director that I didn't think my reading went well, and about how much I didn't like doing the cold readings. 

He told me that my voice was outstanding, and my rythm was great.  He recognized that my reading needed a bit of work, but he pointed out that each time I read, I read first in the group.  The others had the opportunity to hear me read the part before they went up and so they had an advantage that I had.

He also pointed out that the acting they could work on, but the other males auditioning didn't have the voice for the part and that simply could not be learned at this point.

And so my point here is to say that I was lucky to go in front of a group who were able to distinguish learnable skills from non-learnable ones (in their opinion), and they were fair enough to realize that having to go first each time in the readings was a disadvantage.