I was about 10 when I first played bass at school, acoustic double, in music lessons - I had to stand on a stool to reach the neck... never took it up but finally bought an electric when I was 16... My (maple) RD came along when I was 20... I had my RD's frets ground down, as an experiment, around '83, as I could not afford another instrument at the time, then permanantly removed a couple of years later - the fret slots were filled in with a dark strip, so to a non player or when you are not close, you can not tell the difference...! it looks fretted...! this also meant that I knew exactly where my fingers were meant to be, so this speeded up how quickly I learnt to play
I don't think I have any true influence re playing style, although there are numerous songs that were an influence... I don't appreciate the funk style of playing...
I have been out-of-the-loop for sometime so am just getting back into playing - the challenge for me, re fretless, is to play it loose enough but to keep it tight on the tuning - playing something in a totally different manner... it is just another way of playing. I can play rock just as well on the fretless as I can fretted, it just makes it more of a challenge, which I enjoy...
Try out a fretless, play your favourite song, see how different it sounds, or how differently you can play it - fingers or pick... fretless does not just mean funk...