The average emacs user I know doesn't actually know or write Elisp, they just grab preconfigured .el files off the Internet or corporate intranet and add the appropriate snippets to their .emacs.

Elisp gurus, in my experience, don't get all that much work done, other than writing lots of editor extensions. This is great if their job is writing editor extensions, less great if their job is something else. It's the same as with compiler writers: they're great at making other people more productive, but when it comes to writing end-user software, not so much. In general, of course - there are exceptions.