I'm not sure what to make of all that but you seem to be happy doing what your doings, as am i so i don't see much difference to be honest, other than the fact that we (my band) have never been, and never wanted to be a pub band (or play pubs) so maybe we bypassed the [color="#000000"]mediocrity[/color] at an early stage.
As for social club gigs, thats a very small % of our gigs and we mostly look on them as a bit of a breather from the weddings, a good place to try out new songs and get paid, no real preasure, plus the beer is dirt cheap.