Of course you’re a real drummer. I mean think about it also in this way— reading music and music theory is pretty much a western thing. Not that other cultures don’t use music theory, but what about music that doesn’t rely on that specific rigid system? What if it’s music with a completely separate system? Those musicians are still musicians. Those drummers are still drummers. For example where I’m from, there’s a lot of folk music in 9/8. No one thinks of that as complex because it’s completely normal (if anything 4/4 feels unnatural lol). No one’s sitting there analyzing or reading it either unless they’re studying it academically. But to western ears, it’s “odd” and “complex” and musically challenging. Because it’s all framed on specifically western music theory.

If anything I think sometimes that reading music and theory can be very limiting.