Yes, a person who is great at ear-playing could be made better if they can analyze why a thing sounds good, the in-the-moment improvisation flow doesn't give you enough time to really think about what you're doing anyway, but before and after, you can strategize. They're two separate thought-processes that complement each other, imo, as it is with programming. A lot of times I find I can just flow and write code, but there is much room for thoughtful refactoring after the fact. Experience, theory, named concepts and systematic analysis gives you tools to really improve.