"I have fitted thousands of people to bicycles with good success and besides taking measurements will also ride"
Obviously I am not making any personal remarks here. I am sure there are great fitters out there. When you are talking thousands of fits, you are talking retail? Fitting people to existing frames is a different mater. First of all people have stock frame expectations. They are normally present in person, and not dealing over the phone or internet (or they took a ride locally and then went to the internet). It is expected that the stock frame will be augmented to reach a perfect fit, but on a proper custom bike the fit gets decided first, then the components are selected, then the frame is built to tie all that together. One can't just declare victory but slapping on a stem that is 2cm over length.
Also, I have never received competent fitting advice at a bike shop. But I never told anyone a thing about it. So none of the salespeople involved was aware I was not taking their advice, or thought they had steered me wrong. There isn't one correct fit, there are several, so no mater how well it looks to one person, and how good they are at detecting proper fit, it won't necessarily be the correct fit correct fit. The fitter may not know what physical limitations a client has, and therefore can't know that even if it looks good, it actually is good.
A really good fit is going to be require an orthopedists knowledge, a coach's level of understanding of cycling, an understanding of the different forms of cycling, an understanding of framebuilding right down to the specific builder's process one is dealing with, and then one needs the skill to actually hit the target being aimed at. Nobody really has all that, and given that fact, I think it behooves the cyclist to take more responsibility. While the theory is tough, the average cyclist can listen to his body and try to increase his knowledge base. I think his chance of sorting it out over time is better than the chance a commercial setting will hit it.