TomD
At least up until recently the very finest machine tool work was the result of hand scraped work. I hear modern CNC users bandying around comments about accuracy from really pretty rough machines that are at the hand scraped level, and don't know the the truth of that. But till say the year 2000 it was certainly true that hand work was more accurate, more regular, than machine work.

Something pretty common like a bamboo fly rod is extremely accurate, particularly considering the incredible fact that the material is grass. Accuracy held to better than a thou. And pretty fast.

Pye actually created a a machine to make hand tool work in bowls more "risky". A bit of a brain twister to start with. But it allowed him to set the level of free cutting, and precision his work required. And doubtless the results were beautiful. But he also had a picture in one book of one of those cheap drinking glasses that look like the panes in the glass are configured of drips, or sometime bubbles. These are mass manufactured and have the "diversity" he wanted.

His theory, as I have said here before, reminds me of an extension of the idea in Existentialism of the Pour-soi and the En-soi. I once did an essay in Uni extending Weber along those lines. It's a cheap trick for a high mark. The Pour-soi is the idea of behaviour that is molded by an outside norm, while en-soi is from within. Neither is better than the other, though really you would guess they favour En-soi as more "authentic". But we need waiters and poets. Often the same person. And we need carefully made machines to allow us to create diversity in cutting bowls. Pye falls into the category of talking your way into good work when you have a university degree rather than deep skills. Basically the modern art approach. Would he really have been fascinated by his bowls if he been a top carver in a classical style.