For kids like me who were starting to understand and enjoy cool not-for-kiddies music when Give It Away started playing worldwide, Flea has always been kind of a legend. Not particulary for his musical skill or talent, but because he was the bass player with an atittude that made kids pay atenttion to the bass as much as the guitar and guitar players.
Although his bass playing wasnt all that much inovative for the older audience, it was new for us kids who didnt know much about music history other than the last week MTV top ten list. So we were listening to Guns and Roses, Extreme, Skid Row and all the other rock bands who were playing everywhere at the time and they all had bass players that were just there to suport their guitar players solo, and then RHCP came and all we could see was this weird guy monkeying around and making weird noises with his bass. And not only that, those weird noises were actually a big part of the music, so much so that the cool kids at school that could play guitar just couldnt play the chords on their six strings and sing the words because it simply sucked without the bass sound.
So for us kids, to really know how to play the bass meant to be able to play like Flea, otherwise you are just another kid who plays bass because nobody else wanted to.
Anyway, my point is that even if your playing style is not like Flea, but you can play a RHCP tune just like he does, than a lot of people will almost instantly consider you to be a great bass player.
Edit: I dont know if what I said has anything to do with your dilema, but to try to clarify my pont a little more: one of my customers is a great bass player and makes a living out of it. He plays for bands that do all sorts of events like graduations, weddings and even live band karaoke. He told me that when he was starting to audition for gigs a couple of years ago, everytime people asked if he could play RHCP. At the time he couldnt (he was never much of a fan), and so couldnt pass the test. So after a while he decided to learn to play two RHCP songs, and never had a problem getting a gig since. Even if there isnt a RHCP song on the set list, if he can play RHCP, for them it means he can play anything.