Most drummers I know have at various points, tried to convince me that Steve plays nothing, because they cannot accept a human who can play with a Sync24/MTC pulse up his chuff.
Of those I used to play with when I was still at it big time, only one liked Steve, and surprise surprise he was the only one who could play to a click or a machine well, the rest, who claimed Morris was MIMING!, drifted like a child on a lilo in a rip tide......then invariable blamed the machine (the same machine other live players(apart from guitarists obviously, timeless muppets....Barney is a SERIOUS exception to their general rule and all) could stay in with). I tried to forbid them to bring a kick drum when any of them played a club with me, reasoning that if I could stop them going off in a private groove, they would lock up to my atari better....they never listened, though I did take the chain off one's pedal one night and it helped a great deal.
It's like Leadfoot said, he's no almighty soloing prog rock drumgod. But not one of those buggers could play like him either.
He said it himself.....
"they were looking for somebody who could go Boom Bash at fairly regular intervals, and I thought, I can do that"
IALP, Denial, and the like are extremely physical pieces for any drummer **. But Ceremony, AoC and many other have him playing constant, sequencer tight 16ths on the hats, not easy either. And does he or does he not roll his snare like a nutter on Fine Time for 7 mins (unless that's a box, memory fails me).
He's learned a bit of funk in his old age, great for stuff like I told you so, but it's that (and Barney's FUCKING COMPING!!!!!!!!!) that decmiates the power of modern versions of shadowplay....sounds like a busker's version.
**Jazz drummers do not count as they can rattle out hemidemisemiquaver triplets at 400BPM without actually moving, FREAKS!