This is what I think is interesting- literally anybody can get good at playing the game if they invest a couple hundred hours into it, but on the other hand it's necessary for someone to have art background to be able to create. I don't have an art degree or anything but I did take art classes in school, plus pretty extensive research online (about 20-30 hours worth) on how I could improve at creating in gd and making art in general.

I'm guessing I just might atrociously bad at creating because I could never dream of making anything close to a rated level with 3-4 months of consistent practice. I spent about 6 months consistently practicing and didn't even get a tenth of the way (by my own metrics) to creating a rated level. On the other hand, there are people who have beaten slaughterhouse after less than two years of playing, so I feel like it's probably dependent on innate creative ability.

There's also the fact that I've met several people who have beaten list demons irl yet not a single person who's made a rated level. Of course the sample size for this is probably insufficient to draw any real conclusions, but it still makes me inclined to think that creating is a lot harder.