Gents,
As a bass player I can, obviously, not refrain from putting in my 2 cents.
For the drop tuning guitars:
I like them a lot, if it includes also a bassplayer.
Low tuned guitars are fun, but do not provide a fundament on which to build a good sound, the physics simply do not allow for that.
Compare Animals as Leaders (no bass) with bands like TesseracT (amazing bassplayer) or Jinjer (also amazing bassplayer) for instnce
Virtuoso guitarist deserve a solid bassplayer to make them shine.
The doors had a bassplayer, but in the form of the Keyboardist's lefthand. It is efffective to provide a fundament, but does lack a bassist feel.
On the other hand if a bassplayer plays keyboard bass it instantly becomes more effective (Rush, Saga) due to the 'feel'
So far I've found only 1 exception to that rule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpi_saZQak Johansson/Johansson/Holdsworth
As for the shortage of bassplayers:
Certainly a part, I've always had plenty of work. Only now it's slowing down, but more since I'm slowing down and being more selective.
Bring back and keep up the Low end (not meaning low quality, but quality Low)