I come from the other side of the spectrum... a non-skater who is a professional musician. I appreciate your perception of things, mine are slightly different. I do agree that Zach is his own skater obviously and that he is intense and passionate about what he does...but he probably would be the same if he had had another hobby as a kid... I have a lot of students who are not passionate at all and still reach their ARCT level and more.. Passion doesn't come from taking piano lessons... Piano lessons can fuel someone's passionate mind... just like figure skating, swimming, or any other activity.. I am passionate in everything I do... that's just me... some people are chill... and that's fine.. I was a very late starter as a musician and was already all over the place with my passionate soul. So this is why I tend to split both... His training as a musician certainly brings him perspective ... but many skaters train either as musicians or dancers... so I am not that impressed when I hear about so and so was doing music etc... MANY kids are doing music... not many are passionate.Here's my thought process on that. I also grew up doing skating and Royal Conservatory of Music piano training (along with other activities, didn't have the typical social life of most kids because I didn't "hang out" after school). In no way did I reach Zach's skating or piano expertise (went to a regular day school), but I spent over a decade in skating and musical training.
I feel that those skaters that get serious musical instruction have a chance to not just learn how to interpret music, but understand how it is constructed by playing music themselves. They learn pieces of music, timing, and performing in front of others (and in Zach's case, while competing). There are so many elements this brings to his skating, perhaps not overtly, but it provides him with a strong off-ice foundation in musicality. His passion and intensity derives, IMHO, in part from this foundation.
I made this comment because sometimes he gets random online criticism that he's trying to "be like Scott Moir" when he is in fact his own skater. He may share similarities with Scott at times, and may want to achieve a similar level of success to Scott, but I just feel that he comes by his skating persona from his own life experiences.