"A copy band bassist of the future will need a 5er if he wants to play the music of his youth."
We'll see. The victory of the five string has been proclaimed often enough and has yet to take place. If anything I have noticed a resurgence of the four string once people noticed that you need not compete with a Yamaha DX7 keyboard for the lows anymore. Is the sales ratio 4 to 5 string still 9 to 1? I can think of very few bass guitar heroes that absolutely must have a five or more string bass for their style - Anthony Jackson comes to mind and a few others -, but for everyone of them there is a JAE, Jack Bruce, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Glenn Hughes, Colin Hodkinson, Jeff Berlin, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, Sting, Les Claypool, Flea, Bootsy, Lee Sklar, Billy Sheehan, Steve Harris, Geezer Butler, the list goes on.
But, hey, I like minorities!
And I did not intend to insinuate anything negative about playing covers, Patman!!! I have done so myself and continue to do in my law firm band-side project (Bud Jet & The Forecasts).