After all, ultimately music is not about scales or chords or your ability to read notes on a page. It's about sound. We're trying to make good sounds. They wouldn't know a Lydian dominant scale from a fish scale. They're impressed by good sounds.
People react to what tickles their ears, what speaks to their souls.
Now, on a hard bop jazz tune that tri-tone substitution might be exactly what sounds great to your audience. On another kind of gig the simplest 2 note phrase you've ever heard might knock everyone's socks off. The point is that while lots of technique is a great thing to have under your belt, it's not always what sounds good. The best musicians are the ones who live in their ears. It's too easy to get caught up in technique and start to think that music is all fingers and fast licks.