[msluyter]

There's a strange preoccupation with perfect pitch. It's not very useful today since there are inexpensive electronic and mechanical tools to give you absolute pitch. It wasn't even that useful previously.

Classically trained musician without absolute pitch here. I would say yes and no to your comment. My undergrad degree was in flute, and I can assure you that absolute pitch can be quite helpful for wind players especially. My teacher had it, and would be able to tell you if you were out of tune even if you hadn't played with a piano or other reference point.

On the other hand, I once sat between two flutists who both claimed to have absolute pitch but were playing out of tune relative to each other (and each refusing to adjust to the other since... they had absolute pitch). So, it doesn't actually mean you're going to be perfect.

By "inexpensive electronic tools," perhaps you mean these tuners that you can attach to guitars and whatnot? These are certainly helpful for stringed instruments, but are basically irrelevant if you play a wind instrument. Most musicians with relative pitch only need a single reference note and then they're ok. Where relative pitch tends to fail you, however, is over longer periods of time when the pitch tends to drift. You hear this in lots of school orchestras. The pitch will tend to drift upwards (at least in the strings) over a long work. Here, no mechanical/electronic device is going to help you.